The Last Sandworm
by MrPointy2
Summary: Events force the Slayers to come to terms with their true nature.
1. Chapter 1

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

There is in all things a pattern that is part of our universe. It has symmetry, elegance, and grace -- those qualities you find always in that which the true artist captures. You can find it in the turning of the seasons, in the way the sand trails along a ridge, in the branch clusters of the creosote bush or the pattern of its leaves. We try to copy these patterns in our lives and our society, seeking the rhythms, the dances, the forms that comfort. Yet it is possible to see the peril in the finding of ultimate perfection. It is clear that the ultimate pattern contains its own fixity. In such perfection, all things move toward death.  
**"The Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan**

Something wasn't right.

Surayya could feel it right after she got back from Arrakis. She floated in free fall, tethered to the "Leit Kynes". She watched Arrakis slowly turn beneath her as she defocused her mind and let it roam free. She had been trained in the Bene Gesserit ways by Leto II as well as surviving the spice agony at Tailos Three. Her mentat training pricked her mind. She spent hours reviewing the events of the last week in detail but something deep in her slayer mind nagged at her. Something didn't fit and she would not rest until she found out what it was.

She went over the facts again. After detecting an increase in vacuum energy that threatened life in the galaxy she was guided by her dreams to the "Slayer of Slayers" on Arrakis. The "Slayer of Slayers" turned out to be Spike. He was still alive after all these years. His mystical connection to the amulet he wore at the battle of Sunnydale had turned him into a being of pure light with an unbroken temporal and spatial connection to everything he had ever touched. Spikes flesh had long ago faded away. What was trapped on Arrakis was his living sprit and demon soul. For over ten thousand years Spikes soul had been chained to a vampire. Surayya had broken that chain and set Spikes soul free to ascend to his heavenly reward. She hoped He would meet Buffy there.

Still, something wasn't right.

Spike told her that he came to Arrakis because then it was a barren out of the way planet. Spike said his presence on Arrakis changed the eco-system. The light from his being contained information that was captured and encoded by the plant life of Arrakis. From there it passed to the sandtrout and then the sandworms and finally the spice. All of elements of life were already on Arrakis, but without Him spice would have never acquired its ability to allow the Human mind to transcend the barriers of space and time. Surayya accepted all of that and was awed.

"We owe you everything, Spike." She thought. "Without Spike, there would have been no Bene Gesserit or Kwisatz Haderach. Without Spike, Motorria would have never been able to acquire enough of a memory of Willow Rosenberg to get the magic necessary to defeat the Old Ones at Tailos Three and the Human Universe would have been cast into an eternity of brutal suffering. Out of gratitude, Surayya offered up the old freman prayer for Spike.

"Bless the Maker and all His Works. Bless the coming and going of Him. May His passing cleanse the world"

She spoke her words to the brown planet before her and the black space beyond.

Still, something wasn't right.

Beneath Sunnydale, two profound acts of magic occurred. One resulted in the awakening of the Potentials. The other resulted in Spike's death. Spike mentioned that he was still connected to everything he had ever touched. Before he died, he touched Buffy Summers in the cave beneath Sunnydale. Surayya remembered that their hands were aflame as well as their hearts.

She felt a part of the pressure in her mind ease. She was on track to solving the puzzle that had kept her awake for last three days.

"So, are you going to be out there much longer?" She heard a voice say over her suit radio. It was Motorria.

"Have you been watching me this whole time?" Surayya asked.

"No. We've been taking turns. You know me, your loyal crew and Fish Speaker Command."

Surayya began to reel herself back to the station.

"I think I know what has been bothering me." Surayya said as she reached the airlock.

Surayya waited until the airlock cycled and then she removed her helmet. Before her a small crowd of Slayers and Fish Speakers had assembled. She recognized the look of reverential awe on their faces. It was dangerously close to religious zeal. Word of what had happened at Tailos Three and Arrakis had gotten out. No doubt the stories had gotten wilder with every retelling. Suddenly, monsters had returned to Leto's age of reason. Something ancient and wild within Humans responded to this.

"Be very careful." The memories of Paul Maud 'dib said. "This is how religions start. The Bene Gesserit will be very eager to use your legends for their own ends. They are not beyond resurrecting the church of the universal mother, or turning your slayers into matriarchs."

"I'll take care." Surayya answered internally.

Surayya signaled Lisa and Motorria to follow her. After they broke away from the crowd Surayya began to speak.

"We forgot something on Arrakis" she said. "We were so busy trying to save the world we didn't understand what Spike was telling us. Surayya pulled Lisa and Motorria close to her and spoke in a whispered voice.

"It's down there, the thing that made all of us possible at the same time, the thing that ended the loneliness of the Slayers and no longer made her the one girl in the entire world."

Motorria slapped her hand to her mouth shocked by what Surayya was saying. They all knew what it was. It was a shaft sharpened to a point on one end with a red metal blade on the other.

"We're going back to Arrakis to find the Scythe."


	2. Chapter 2

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

When are the witches to be trusted? Never! The dark side of the magic universe belongs to the Bene Gesserit and we must reject them. "

— Tylwyth Waff, Master of Masters, Chapterhouse Dune

Reverend Mother Huma Azeeza was intrigued. Over the last month very strange reports were coming in from her Bene Gesserit spies on Arrakis. It seemed that Leto had made an unannounced alteration in the breeding program and had produced a class of super beings for special operations on Tailos Three. The events of that operation were still classified. Now Leto was dead and the galaxy was in chaos. His super beings, these Slayers, were running wild. They had their own battle fleet and a fair amount of the Atreides house atomics. If the report she read was accurate these slayers had just made a deal with the Fish Speakers for long term logistical support. The slayers were disciplined, organized and well funded and were definitely a threat to the long term plans of the Bene Gesserit.

Huma read the reports again. It seemed that a fair amount of hero worship had sprung up around the slayers. She could use that. The Missionaria Protectiva needed new legends to feed the galaxy. If you control what people think you control how they act. That was real power.

Three thousand years ago Lady Jessica had derailed the Bene Gesserit breeding plans to produce the Kwisatz Haderach. She disobeyed her orders to produce a girl and instead produced Paul Atreides. Because of that betrayal, the Bene Gesserit had lost their control over the galaxy. Huma could see that through the careful use of the slayers, the Bene Gesserit could regain their hold over the galaxy. Through the slayers, the Bene Gesserit could once again become the dominate force in Human space. One thing stood in her way.

The Slayers were excellent fighters.

"If they resist, we'll simply kill them." Huma thought. She keyed the intercom. Her assistant Norma answered. "Tell the sisters on Arrakis to capture a slayer for interrogation. Huma examined the high definition image before her. The girl was all of seventeen. She had dark skin, green eyes and the fierce stare of a predator. Already she had lead a planetary assault against Tailos three, assassinated several high ranking leaders on Tleilaxu and somehow saved trillions from being incinerated by vacuum energy.

"Surayya Raisa Atreides" Huma thought to herself. "You belong to us now."

The Freman Slayers had been making pilgrimage to the sacred place for days now. Under the burning Arrakis sun hundreds of them had found their way to Spikes cave to offer alms and prayer at the fountain of the ancient light. This was a holy place where "He who walked between worlds" dwelled. This was a place feared by the nightwalkers who were foul creatures that killed and drank the blood of men. This has been a place of safety for thousands of years.

Lucillia Corrino removed her stillsuit mask as her eyes adjusted to the dim cave light. Around her she could see and smell the mob moving and pushing all around her. Fremen of old would have never stood for this. Someone rude would have died by now. That was part of the problem. Thousands of years of living under the rule of the Tyrant Leto had forced the fremen to become a shell of themselves. Lucillia looked around at the alters and stacks of offerings which were mostly food and prayers for a loved one's safe passage to paradise.

"The fears of silly children." Lucillia thought as she observed the cave the way her father had taught her. Sietch Kindle was only a few kilometers from here. It had provided a steady source of slayers over the last thousand years. Spike's arrival on Arrakis had forced the first slayer to awaken on Dune. The secret journal's of the watchers lay safe with her and her family. They were even safe from Leto the Worm since slayers were invisible to seers.

Lucillia ran a hand over the secret compartment in her stillsuit. It contained a small vial of the most precious substance in the universe. It contained over three grams of pure spice. She scanned the cave and spotted her contact immediately. The arrangements had already been made. She was here to deliver the payment.

"Arrakis has seen too many miracles. The reign of the supernatural must end. Leto's abominations must be stopped." She thought. After delivering the payment of spice to the representative of the guild of assassins she went to the nearest alter and prayed.


	3. Chapter 3

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Do not depend only on theory if your life is at stake.  
Bene Gesserit Commentary  
Chapterhouse: Dune

Captain Wilma Plankton sat alone at the cafeteria table. She had just finished registering with Fish Speaker central per the terms of the support agreement. The whole thing took only a few minutes. She had to take a series of holographic scans that revealed an obscene amount of biological data. In addition, The Fish Speakers took a small genetic sample. No doubt they were secretly continuing Leto's breeding program. Wilma looked over the public feeding area and generally found it pleasing. The outdoor cafeteria sat on the upper tier of an observation deck. From where she was sitting, Wilma had a pretty good view of the space stations landscape and the crescent shape of Arrakis beyond.

As she sat enjoying her simple meal of soup and salad, she noticed she was being watched. Wilma pretended not to notice her observers as she continued her meal. It took her a moment to notice that they were not fans. Tales of the slayers were circulating the station enhancing their reputation beyond what the facts warranted. But then again, the facts were pretty fantastic. Wilma was there when they battled the Old Ones at Tailos Three. The slayers had saved the world by basically destroying a neutron star. Ok. She could see why slayers were developing a fan base.

Wilma risked a peek at one of her observers. He was gone.

"Oh, well." She thought. "Fame is fleeting."

The first dart hit her in the back of the neck. She could feel the needle penetrate her skin and the narcotic enter her bloodstream. She recognized it as a standard tranquilizer and adjusted her biochemistry to neutralize it. The second and third darts hit her in the back along her spine injecting the tranquilizer directly into her nervous system. They had the capture net on her before she could move.

One of her observers, a short stocky man in his mid thirties with side panels of gray hair, walked over to her as she lay on the floor wrapped in the metal cocoon.

"Lie still." He said. "The more you move, the more the net tightens." He keyed his radio and spoke to his handler.

"We got one." He said. "Stand by for pick-up."

The other men gathered around and took her away.

Three hours later Wilma awoke tied to a stone chair in the middle of a huge interrogation theater. Three men surrounded her. A bright light shone on her blinding her to the woman who stood in the shadows.

Wilma slowed down her subjective time as she analyzed her situation. She was kidnapped, restrained but still alive. Conclusion: Someone wanted information. Someone stupid enough to think that information alone is power. The Fish Speakers were loyal to Leto and everything he had done. They accepted the fact that the resurrection of the slayers was the last Holy act performed by Leto. They would never betray that. That left only one other group. Wilma watched one of the men inject her from a syringe containing a liquid form of pure spice. Wilma had survived the spice agony at Tailos Three. She was a Reverend Mother. The woman in the shadows didn't know that.

"So, are we going on another magical mystery tour?" Wilma could hear Faith Lehane ask in her mind.

"Not today, sweetie." Wilma answered as she quickly transformed the spice into the water of life.

The man before her removed the empty syringe as they waited for her to begin writhing in agony. Wilma smiled as she made her arm and leg muscles completely limp enough to slide them from her restraints. It took the men a moment to notice that she was completely free and not in any sort of pain.

Wilma was fast. She killed the first man with a two finger cobra strike with to his windpipe. She kicked the second man in his left knee cap shattering it in six places. The third man turned to run and she was on him in two steps. She slammed the palm of her hand into his side compressing his ribcage and stopping his heart. Her slayer strength was coming in very useful. She turned her attention back to the second man who was nurturing his shattered knee cap when the woman stepped out of the shadow.

"You are Bene Gesserit?" She said. Her face showed her surprise. Huma quickly erased any display of emotions from her face suddenly realizing her mistake. She had underestimated the unknown. Huma leapt the distance between them attempting to knock Wilma off balance. Wilma easily dodged the reverend mother and smashed her elbow brutally down on the back of Hama's neck. They could hear bone snap. If Huma was not Bene Gesserit she would have died instantly. Huma adjusted her neck muscles carefully re-seating her spinal column.

Wilma didn't want to push her luck. She didn't know the extent of security here. Wilma made her way to the nearest door and looked for an exit.

Huma lay on the floor furious and humiliated. She watched Leto's Slayer escape.

"Things will be different next time." She thought.


	4. Chapter 4

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

**God created Arrakis to train the faithful.**

from _The Wisdom of Muad'Dib_ by the Princess Irulan

They jumped her as soon as she entered the bridge. A swarm of slayers left their workstations and piled on Motorria.

"Welcome back!" The Slayers all yelled. Together, they all laughed and giggled. They were happy to have her back. Motorria saw the balloons tied to her bridge station and her shipmates on top of her and was very happy.

"Alright, let's remember where we are." Surayya said as she made her way to the captain's chair. She didn't mind the exuberant display of affection but she had to at least keep the semblance of order.

The girls all gave Motorria a hug and a kiss as they slowly made their way back to their workstation.

"So, captain" Afari Guerrero asked from her executive command station. "What happened on Arrakis? We saw the light show. It was fantastic."

Surayya leaned back as she gathered her thoughts. Everyone wanted to know how they saved the galaxy. It was a good thing Leto has banned mass media eons ago else the "Memories of Dawn" would have been swamped by tourist and news hounds.

"I'm still working on my log entry. As soon as it's finished, I'll post it on the ships website." Surayya said.

"Website." Motorria thought the ancient word was funny. The image of Surayya trying to stick a printout on a delicate spider web made her giggle.

"Tell us about Him." Another crewmember asked.

"Who, Spike?" Surayya answered coyly. She knew very well that every slayer on board wanted to know about Spike.

"Technically, all I met was a fountain of light that remembered being Spike." Surayya said.

All of the slayers on the bridge looked at her with a deadpan expression. Surayya stared back. They stared at her. She stared at them. They stared back. She cracked first.

"I never could win a staring contest." She murmured to herself. "Alright, He was a cutie." She said.

Surayya knew the memories that floated at the forefront of every slayers memory. Every slayer had at least the memory of Spike attacking Sunnydale high, meeting Buffy for the first time and the memory of him dying in the battle of Sunnydale. For most slayers, the bulk of their memories of Spike were like gentle musical notes of sex and sadness.

"You're never going to believe this." Someone said from her workstation. "Captain, take a look at this."

The file was forwarded to the captains' console. Surayya reviewed it and placed it on the main screen.

Before them was a huge crudely sketched hand drawn image. It showed the face of a young girl looking skyward. She was framed in rays of light which seemed to radiate from her head. It took everyone else on the bridge a moment to notice that the young girl in the sketch resembled Surayya.

"It's a flyer from the "Church of Universal Light." The crewmember said. "They promise enlightenment and miracles.

"Sounds like the Bene Gesserit to me." Surayya said. Their Missionaria Protectiva is busy creating new religions." The thought of being used as an icon made her skin crawl.

Surayya glanced at her command monitor. There was a disturbing email on her screen.

"Afari, issue a fleet wide roll call." Surayya said barely suppressing her rage. "Bene Gesserit are kidnapping slayers for interrogation." Surayya read the rest of the email and smiled.

"So far, thirteen Bene Gesserit are dead." She said. "Still, I want to know if anyone is missing."

Huma found this slayer different. She was complacent and corporative. Seemed she held some sort of grudge against the slayers in general and their commander in particular. During her pursuit she had willingly gone along with her kidnappers. No torture was necessary. She answered every question willingly even providing addition information for clarification. The questions she asked in turn seemed oddly oblique. Huma realized she was being interrogated in turn by the strange slayer but the questions she asked were so irreverent to her plans that she was not threatened by them.

In fact, things had gone so well that Huma had invited the slayer for an intimate dinner for just the two of them. Of course, Bene Gesserit guards were outside the door with strict orders to gas everyone in the room including her if things looked dicey.

Huma poured herself a second glass of fine Corrino wine as she continued her questioning.

"So, you're saying that Leto created these slayers in response to aliens locked inside of a hollow moon? Huma asked.

Field Commander Swanson looked at the woman across from her as she employed every ounce of her face dancer restraint to hide her contempt. Huma had just referred to the Old Ones as aliens like they were a race of smart bugs. The Old Ones were Gods and the Slayers had defeated them. The only consolidation to Swanson at this point was the fact that this woman would be dead soon. Swanson examined her meal of animal flesh and seasonings. She repressed her loathing of the meal and the company she was forced to endure.

"There is magic in the universe." Swanson said. "The Voice of God is speaking to us. The Bene Gesserit constantly fail to notice that. You failed with Maud 'dib, you failed with Leto. You will fail with the slayers."

"Magic?!" Huma said dismissing the concept outright. "Leto had access to the entire Bene Gesserit breeding program. He found something in the gene pool and twisted it to his own end. Soon we will have our own slayers. Slayers only loyal to the sisterhood. The Slayers are not divine beings. They are not rooted in magic. They're just girls."

"Blasphemer!" Swanson thought. That's when she decided to kill her. Swanson took her dinner knife and jammed it into Huma's carotid artery. A fountain of blood spewed out of Huma splashing Swanson in the face. Before Huma could scream Swanson snapped her neck.

She was up and at the door in one motion. Her facial features shifted in a way that only face dancers could achieve. In a split second she looked exactly like Huma. She pressed her face to the window preventing the guards from seeing the blood soaked table inside.

Swanson knocked twice to signal the interview was over. The guards opened the door. She killed them on the way out.


	5. Chapter 5

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

"DNA is the language of God."

**Tleilaxu Quote**

She no longer called herself Swanson and she was still only a she as a matter of necessity. She knew she would have dealing with the Slayers soon and kept her gender as a matter of convenience. Her true name was Alexia but for now she masqueraded as the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother known as Huma.

She sat in her office aboard the Bene Gesserit ship "Persistence of Purpose" and read the genetic data stolen from the Fish Speaker computers. The Fish Speakers had done an excellent job of scanning the Slayers. Alexia had a full readout of a valid cross section of Slayer DNA. She knew that before the inversion only one slayer was called at a time. When the old slayer died a new slayer was chosen. There must be some gene marker that separated potential Slayers from the rest of Humanity.

God must have a way to know his people.

Alexia watched the software analyze the millions of base pairs and compare them to the genetic information taken from Leto's breeding records.

"God's voice will speak to me soon." She thought. "Once I have the gene markers, I can graft them to myself. We will become chosen. Our enslavement to the Tleilaxu masters will end in blood and fire."

In the still darkness of her officer, her face lit by only a computer screen, Alexia offered prayers for her freedom and the freedom of all Tleilaxu Face Dancers.

Beth was proud to be invited to the staff meeting aboard the "Memories of Dawn." Since the deal had been struck between the slayers and the fish speakers Beth was appointed the liaison between the two groups. The appointment included a promotion to the rank of commander and a small office and staff which was a whole lot better than going to prison for attacking "Memories of Dawn." She entered the conference room and grabbed a chair near the middle of the table. Beth watched the rest of the slayers file into the room.

Surayya was the last one to enter. She went directly to the head of the table and activated the overhead holographic display. In the middle of the room floated an image of the Scythe. For the Slayers, the sight of it took their breath away. They recognized it in their cells. This was the device that called them all into the world. This was the nexus through which the divine had chosen them. How Leto managed to create so many Slayers was still a mystery.

"It disappeared over thirteen thousand years ago on Earth soon after the battle of Sunnydale." Surayya said. "Willow Rosenberg used it as a generator to amplify and disperse the magics needed to activate all the slayers in the world at the same time."

Surayya touched a button. The image of the Scythe disappeared to be replaced by a video reconstruction of Spike being incinerated in the final moments of his battle against the Turok Han.

"We know the amulet that Spike wore and the Scythe are connected." Surayya continued. "The Scythe was touched by Buffy and Buffy was touched by Spike, on more than one occasion I might add."

There was light laughter in the room. Beth didn't get the joke.

"So now we're playing six degrees of Spike?" Motorria said referring to an old Earth game where you attempt to guess the connection between two people within a limit of six steps.

"Seems like." Surayya said. "I've come to the conclusion that Spike located the Scythe and brought it here to Arrakis when he arrived. We set him free before he could tell us where he hid it."

"Why would the demon part of Spike allow anything to do with Slayers to be brought within a dozen light years of it?" Lisa asked.

"Perhaps it didn't know." Surayya answered. "We know Spike was working against his demon half. Perhaps he snuck it onto Arrakis."

"I've got a crazy idea." Lisa said. "You mentioned earlier that the last Slayer Vampire war was thousands of years ago. And because of that, no one was chosen for thousands of years. Perhaps Spike brought the Scythe to Arrakis so that if the Slayers were ever resurrected she would drawn to Arrakis to kill the last Vampire. Him."

The Slayers all thought about what Lisa said.

"Sietch Kindle!" someone said. "The Slayers we found with Spike all came from Sietch Kindle. Our pre-born memories confirm this"

Surayya, as well as the rest of the Slayers felt as if they were on to something.

"Well then, we start our search for the Scythe at Sietch Kindle." Surayya said.

"They are coming." The boy said.

"Who?" his mother asked as she looked up from the dinner she was preparing. The woman was in her late fifties with streaks of gray hair and the classic freman tanning.

"The ones Spike told us about." He said. The boy was only seven years old. He was thin and wiry with long arms and strong hands. He had black hair and the deep freman blue within blue eyes.

"I must go to them." He said. "I must make sure they understand what they must do."

With that, He rose and kissed his mother goodbye as he gathered his stillsuit and books.

Today, he thought I become a real Watcher.


	6. Chapter 6

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Atrocity is recognized as such by victim and predator alike, **Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity. It is self-perpetuating upon itself — a barbarous form of incest. Whoever commits atrocity also commits those future atrocities thus bred.**

The Apocrypha of Muad'Dib

The first bomb exploded ten minutes into the morning worship service. The bomb was a measure of shuttle fuel connected to a timer. The shrapnel from the bomb killed a third of the faithful outright and maimed the rest beyond healing. As they fled, a second bomb, at the exit to the church exploded. Fifty seven people lay dead and dying in the hot Arrakis sun.

The final device waited until it could hear the sounds of people approaching. The artificial intelligence inside waited until it could resolve the seismic waveforms generated by the approach of heavy earth moving and life support equipment. It waited until enough people were gathered around before it released the monster it held within.

Until the Fish Speaker fly over the next day, no living creature occupied the capital city of Arrakis.

"It was the Church of Universal Light" the pilot said as she flew the acres of bodies below. "The first bomb exploded at the morning services. They waited until rescue services arrived and released a bio-weapon. We still don't know who's responsible."

Beth was appalled as she viewed the carnage from the back seat of the 'thopter. She had seen her share of death in the service of the Fish Speakers. But this was a slaughter. This was a brutal and evil act.

Since Leto's death, barely a month ago, the empire was falling into chaos as factions suppressed for thousands of years came out of hiding. The long peace was over. Mankind had resumed the bloody art of war.

"There are some survivors, ma'am." The young aid said. "The weapon was only 87% effective." She thought about what she had just said. "I'm sorry ma'am, I didn't mean 'only'."

Beth grinded her teeth looking at the scene below. She was a Fish Speaker. Someone was going to pay.

"Father, what have you done?!" Lucillia screamed. She was back in Sietch Kindle. This was the day that their war against the infidels was start. The heretics would pay for spreading their blasphemy. They would start with the Church of Universal Light. A religion based on a vampire? Unforgiveable!

"The weapon was only for those in the church." Lucillia's father said. "We miscalculated." He said sorrowfully. The biologics were never meant to spread beyond the church." Lucillia's father was genuinely grieved. His sharp features showed his pain. He wanted a war not a slaughter.

"Thousands are dead!" Lucillia said. "Capital city is in ruins!" Lucillia could see her father was in pain at he had done. Sill, her rage burned like a fire within her. Lucillia stroked her father back to comfort him.

"They will curse us now. " she said. "We have become outcast. We have become Jacarutu! We are a den of water thieves."

Lucillia curled around her father as they cried together on the floor of sietch Kindle.

"We are damned." She thought to herself.

The boy watched the high definition screens on the public observation deck. The body count was over ten thousand so far. Ten thousand bloated bodies lay in the hot Arrakis sun. He closed his eyes in a simple prayer for the dead. He gathered his books, and continued his journey towards Leto's Slayers.

His name was Karif Kareef and he was a Watcher. For the last year he had studied the writings of the watchers who came before him. He had memorized the great events in slayer history. He knew every detail of Slayer history from Sineya, the First Slayer,to Buffy Summers, to Fray to the legion of six who won the last great Slayer-Vampire war on Earth thousands of years ago.

Karif arrived at the embassy space reserved for Leto's slayers. His study of slayer history had revealed a secret. He knew something that the Slayers needed to know. Karif rang the door bell to the embassy entrance and waited.

A young girl, age fifteen, opened the door. Karif spoke to her briefly using the old Freman secret codes.

The young girl turned to someone behind her and yelled.

"Lisa, some kid is at the door. 'Sez he knows where the Scythe is.


	7. Chapter 7

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

**Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.**

from _The Sayings of Muad'Dib_ by the Princess Irulan

She hunted by night. The creature she chased across the Arrakis sand moved with a speed and precision made all the more impressive by the fact that it moved in total darkness. The night vision goggles she wore over her stillsuit helped her track the monster. The thing she hunted needed no help.

She tracked it into the rock cliff and knew she had it. Running quickly she took a short cut over the top of the ridge and leapt unto the creatures back. It had killed six men this night. She would make sure it would never kill again.

The vampire tumbled as her weight hit him. They both fell into the sand. The vampire was up first. It lunged at her, raking its claws across the front of her stillsuit. Her water flowed freely. She flipped forward to her feet driving the length of her forearm into its throat. The creature bared it's teeth and went for her face. She took the stake and rammed it into its heart. The creature disappeared in a storm of smoke.

Lucillia removed the mask to her stillsuit and exhaled. A good hunt always cleared her head. It had been three days since the bombing of the Church of Universal Light and the release of a deadly biological weapon in the Arrakis capital city. The body count to date was over twelve thousand.

Lucillia had played a small role in that atrocity. She had her own demons to face. She squat in the sand letting her thoughts wander.

Something moved in the corner of her eye.

Lucillia leapt upon it. She grabbed it with one hand and brought it to her face. It was a salmon pink diamond shaped life form. It took her a moment to recognize it. Her heart began to race.

"Great Maker, This is a sandtrout!" she thought. "Is this a part of Leto?" Then she remembered. Leto was murdered in the Idaho River. That was hundreds of kilometers away. That could only mean one thing.

Sandtrout were the nascent form of the sandworm, of the Great Maker, of Shai-Hulud. The Fremen knew that the Sandworm were the manifestation of God's will.

Lucillia held the sandtrout in her hand and forced back her tears. She did not want to waste the water.

"It's a sign." She thought. "God still loves me. "

She quickly placed the sandtrout in her stillsuit and ran all the way back to Sietch Kindle.

"Absolutely not!" Surayya said. She was in a teleconference with Fish Speaker command. Normally, they would communicate through Beth the Fish Speaker liaison but every available officer had been pressed into investigating the recent bombing. In the three days since the bombing the city had erupted into nonstop rioting. The smoke from the burning cities could be seen from the deck of the "Memories of Dawn."

"I will not turn over our atomics to the Fish Speakers." Surayya said again. "They were given to us by Leto for our ongoing mission." Surayya was becoming irritated at the Fish Speaker insistence that they hand over their strongest weapons.

"May I also remind you that the Old Ones at Tailos three are not dead? They're just locked away in their prison moon. If they should ever get out…" Surayya was too upset to continue. Her Bene Gesserit training kept a firm lock on her emotions. Sometimes It paid to act as if you were out of control.

Fish Speak commander Felicia Gorman was unimpressed. It was she who had sent Beth after the Slayers to begin with. Whatever these creatures were she could not bear the thought of them running around the galaxy with nuclear weapons in the gigaton range.

Surayya observed the commanders facial expressions in the way every Bene Gesserit knew. Gorman had made up her mind a long time ago. It was obvious to anyone trained as she that Gorman considered the Slayers something to be contained and if necessary destroyed.

"Under the authority of the Imperial Charter, I demand you turn over all atomics…" Gorman was saying when Surayya cut her off. Surayya turned the monitor away from her in disgust. Leto was dead. There was no Imperial line of succession. As far as Surayya was concerned, the Fish Speakers were just an out of control bunch of freelancers.

The Slayers did not fall under their jurisdiction since they had been given a separate and independent commission by Leto. The Slayers were not an army; they were not a police force. Their job was to hunt down monsters. The violence and civil unrest of Arrakis did not meet their mission profile. I grieved Surayya's heart to issue the order but she knew what had to be done.

She keyed the intra fleet channel.

"Command to all ships, prepare to break orbit." She said. "We are leaving Arrakis. "

Commander Gorman slammed her fist on the keyboard. That slayer child had cut her off in mid sentence! Gorman typed on the keyboard bringing up the results of the Slayer's scans. They had eighty percent of the slayers scanned into the system. They had enough biological data to pursue other means of domesticating these creatures.

The corner of Surayya's main view screen populated with a small image directly from the Slayer embassy on the "Leit-Kynes."

"Commander", the young slayer said. "There's a boy here from sitech Kindle who claims to know the location of the scythe. "He said it was brought here by Spike thousands of years ago for the end of days, for God's last miracle on Arrakis. He also said that he is trained to be a watcher and that, I quote, we need a watcher very badly."

Surayya smiled. The kid had some nerve.

"Alright, put him on the next shuttle. I like to hear what he has to say. "

Surayya disconnected the call.

Moments later massive explosions rocked the "Leit-Kynes."


	8. Chapter 8

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Muad'Dib teachings have become the playground of scholastics, of the superstitious and the corrupt. He taught a balanced way of life, a philosophy with which a human can meet problems arising from an ever-changing universe. He said humankind is still evolving, in a process which will never end. He said this evolution moves on changing principles which are known only to eternity. How can corrupted reasoning play with such an essence?

Words of the Mentat Duncan Idaho

The machine finished its work. The face dancer Alexia, formally known as Reverend Mother Huma and the Slayer Swanson, had finally been able to inject herself with the genetic material gathered from several kidnapped slayers. She rested momentary. The gene therapy had taken several hours and had been quite painful. Alexia removed herself from the medical table and made her way to the only mirror in the room. There were puckered wounds along the side of her body where she was connected to the automated surgery device.

"Seventeen gene markers spread out over twenty-three chromosomes." Alexia thought. "All of them junk genes."

Alexia looked herself over. She prayed that none of her new genes produced tumors or cancers. Her mind went over the next phase of her plan.

"I need to activate the genes to become a full slayer. If I can do this, then the Face Dancers can be free."

Alexia considered her options. She knew only one way to activate the Slayer genes. She needed the Scythe. She shifted her features back to Swanson again. She would join the Slayers on "Memories of Dawn" to find their secret.

Her cabin intercom buzzed.

"Reverend Mother." Her assistant Norma said, "There appears to be a series of explosions on the Leit-Kynes. The station has become unstable."

"No!" Alexia thought to herself. "There were still slayers aboard the Leit-Kynes." She had to get back aboard the "Memories of Dawn" before that maniac Surayya pulled the fleet out. Alexia had a plan. She called Norma into the room.

Aboard the "Memories of Dawn" Surayya watched in horror as the Leit-Kynes split in half. Huge chunks of it slowly fractured and flew away from the station in long leisurely arcs.

"There were still slayers on that Station!" she thought. Out of reflex, Surayya stood at her command station frustrated that she had nothing to hit.

The space station had self sealing compartments and whatever sections were remaining were air tight. There might be survivors.

"Comm, get me the Slayer Embassy." She said.

A second later a static filled voice filled the command center. All of the Slayers on the bridge continued their work while straining to listen.

"Commander, there's a lot of smoke here." A nameless voice said. "We have breathers but the hallway is on fire. We can't get out. The Watcher is with me."

"Damn!" Surayya thought. She needed his information about the Scythe.

Surayya keyed the intercom again.

"Motorria, I need you now!" Surayya said. Perhaps Motorria could teleport them from the Leit-Kynes. Then it hit her. There were thousands of people still on that station. Motorria could not save them all. She felt tension rising. She keyed the intercom again.

"Moto, where are you?" The Slayers could hear the desperation in her voice.

The Station exploded in a ball of blinding light.

For once Fish Speaker paranoia proved useful. Because the Slayer ships were Imperial Class Battleships, the Fish Speakers demanded that they assume a parking orbit thousands of kilometers from the Leit-Kynes. This gave them enough time to raise shields before the blast wave hit. When the electronics came back on line all they could see was an expanding cloud of plasma. The Leit-Kynes had been blown from the sky.

Surayya was stunned. There was nothing she could say. Slayers had died today. Thousands of civilians had just been murdered. Surayya could feel the berserker rage slowly start to build in her. Five minutes passed before she could unclench her hand from the arm of the command chair.

"Captain, were getting a signal from the surface of Arrakis." The Slayer at the communications station said. "It's on a slayer frequency."

"Put it on screen." Surayya said in a deadpan voice.

The ship's view screen showed the dirty and bloody face of one of the Slayers who were stationed at the embassy. Next to her, on the ground, was a dazed and confused boy.

"We barely managed to get out in time." The girl from Arrakis said. "The station had already exploded. I don't know what happened next. I remember screaming with every cell in my body "I want to get out of here!" The room went white and I awoke here."

Motorria entered the bridge. Surayya turned to her and smiled.

"Playing it close to the vest?" she said.

"It wasn't me." Motorria said with worry in her voice. She looked at Surayya a long moment.

"Then how?" Surayya asked.

"I think it's connected to how we were made. How Leto converted a bunch of little girls into slayers." Motorria said as she made her way over to the science station.

"We forget that things change." Motorria continued. "The original slayer was not created with the Scythe. The original slayer was created by pouring the essence of a demon into a girl. It happened thousands of years ago on earth."

"One moment." Surayya said to Motorria as she turned to her executive officer.

"I'm already on it captain." Her executive officer said. "There's a team on the way to pick them up now."

"Hold that a moment. I may want to go down myself." Surayya turned back to Motorria. "You were saying?"

"This goes back to how we were made." Motorria spoke while reviewing the archives for Leto's commentary on his slayers. "On Earth, they had an expression. Leto kicked it old School. He made us slayers the old fashioned way. He poured the essence of a demon into all of us."

Surayya thought about that for a moment.

"At graduation, there were thousands of us." Surayya asked. "Where did Leto find enough demons to sacrifice to us? If there were that many demons on Arrakis somebody would have noticed."

"Leto found one demon. A single demon large enough to serve as the source of us all." Motorria waited for Surayya to put the pieces together.

"Spike!" she yelped. The shock overwhelmed her Bene Gesserit training. Spike was the source of the demonic energy used to create Leto's slayers. And Spike was still connected to everything he had ever touched.

Surayya ran the facts over her mind again and again. One fact was obvious from today's events.

"We can teleport!" she thought.


	9. Chapter 9

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

**Discovery is dangerous… but so is life. A man unwilling to take risk is doomed never to learn, never to grow, never to live.**

Planetologist Pardot Kynes

She joined the Slayers on the bridge.

The "Memories of Dawn" had remained in its parking orbit while her crew performed inventory and maintenance. A few of the other ships, the "Xander Harris" and the "Anya Jenkins" suffered slight blast damage. From the bridge, the crew of the "Memories of Dawn" watched wide eyed and teary the glowing cloud of plasma that was the "Leit-Kynes".

They didn't want to count the cost.

There was almost eighty square kilometers of space aboard the "Leit-Kynes". Many of the slayers went into denial concerning the body count but their mentat training nibbled away at the back of their minds.

Tens of tens of thousands had died.

No one noticed or commented when Commander Swanson joined them on the bridge. She was covered in blood with strategically placed scratches on her face. Her plan was to rejoin the slayers with the story of her brave and daring escape from the Bene Gesserit. The destruction of the "Leit-Kynes" changed all that. No one cared right now about kidnapped slayers and Bene Gesserit plans.

She had killed Norma for nothing.

Swanson approached the Slayers staring out of the main view port. She watched the darkness with them for a moment thinking of the proper thing to say. She searched her mind for a way to comfort them. She could think of nothing.

"Change is in the air." Motorria said.

She, Surayya and Lisa were in a shuttle on their way to Arrakis. It had been quite a flight from the "Memories of Dawn." Fragments of the "Leit-Kynes" were scattered in orbit around Arrakis like landmines. Surayya called upon Paul Muad'Dib to guide her through the fragments.

Motorria was sitting in the back of the shuttle running navigation.

"Arrakis is now under martial law." She said. "Any unauthorized craft will be shot down without question. All citizens are confined to their homes and any Fish Speaker Officer above the rank of sub-Commander can use deadly force without authorization."

Surayya and Lisa looked at each other. The Fish Speakers were serious. Surayya didn't blame them. Countless thousands were dead. Minutes after the explosion, ship commanders were forwarding her lists of volunteers who wanted to join the Fish Speakers to look for the murders. Surayya was tempted to go herself but she remembered.

Slayers are not an army or a police force.

As terrible as the destruction of the "Leit-Kynes" was, it was done by Humans or what passed for Humans in Leto's empire. This was Human death caused by Human hands. The Slayers had their own issues to contend with. Surayya denied the volunteers.

"They just called in reinforcements'. Motorria continued. "Six ground divisions and three battle fleets."

Motorria voice sounded shaky as she continued to monitor radio transmissions.

"They just called in "Her Graceful Measure." Motorria said.

"Her Graceful Measure" was the most powerful ship in the Fish Speaker arsenal. It was capable of successfully fighting a three front war by itself. It was a command carrier as well as a planet killer. Leto had used it to pacify the outer rim system.

"Her Graceful Measure" will be here in four days local time." Motorria threw her headphones against the wall in disgust.

"A hundred thousand people are dead, Moto." Surayya said softly as she turned and looked at her a moment. "Let them do their job."

"As long as they don't get in our way." Motorria said in a tone Surayya had never heard from her before.

"Captain." Lisa said from the co-pilot chair, "We're coming up on landing zone."

The shuttle craft swooped once over the landing zone then sat down in a cloud of dust. Surayya unbuckled herself and leapt from the shuttle. She could see a small cave opening a few meters away. As she ran towards it she could see the watcher standing at the mouth of the cave.

Inside, she found the slayer from the embassy lying on the ground near death. Surayya went to her and held her gently. The dying slayer opened her eyes partially. Her lips were dry and cracked. Her uniform was spotted with blood.

"I'm sorry." She said. "I did the best I could."

"It's ok." Surayya said kindly. "You did great. Everything will be ok."

Motorria arrived with a portable medical kit and supplies. She looked the slayer over and shook her head.

"Multiple internal wounds, she's bleeding from…everywhere." Motorria said as her eyes took on a faraway look.

Lisa brought up the rear. She could tell from the expressions of Surayya and Motorria the slayer they came for didn't have long.

"It's the teleportation." Motorria said. "Unless it's done perfectly, the body isn't reassembled properly. She's falling apart at the molecular level."

Surayya held the slayer in her arms stroking her hair. Motorria administered a pain killer. That was all they could do.

"We've got to get on top of this." Surayya said. "This ability is ours and ours alone. It was given to us for a reason. We've got to master this. We have to find the essence of our true nature. We can't become tools of the Fish Speakers, the Bene Gesserit, or anyone else who would use us for their own purpose. "

Motorria and Lisa both shook their heads in agreement.

"We've got to find the Scythe. We've got to control our own destiny." Surayya said.

Moments later the slayer passed away.

Surayya gave moisture to the dead.


	10. Chapter 10

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Religion serves a legitimate purpose. It reconnects you to the divine, which is that source of yourself that remains in the outer world. Forbid not men to approach the temple with supplications and prayer. For in the absence of a living faith, ritual becomes the bones of the dead and the temple is changed from a fountain of living water into a desert.

-Alison Winters

"The aesthetics of religious engineering"

The Missionaria Protectiva

Overnight the Fish Speakers had gone mad.

The destruction of the ""Leit-Kynes" the day had before had kicked the Fish Speaker security into overdrive. The entire planet was under martial law. Field commanders were authorized to use deadly force. People were taken in the middle of the night and never heard from again. The planet once again felt as if it was under Harkonnen rule.

This was her second day in the cave. Surayya and her crew had made camp where they found the teleporting slayer and the watcher. They kept radio silence and avoided lighting a fire against the cold desert night. They huddled together to keep warm. Oddly enough, the watcher didn't mind. In the morning they buried the dead slayer in an unmarked grave.

Karif prayed over her body.

"Bless the Maker and all His Works. Bless the coming and going of Him. May His passing cleanse the world" Karif said as a prayer to Shai-Hulud the worm who is God.

They gathered in the cave to avoid the heat and to plan their next move. Surayya knew she had to move her fleet from orbit. At some point, someone is going to be stupid enough to attempt to board a slayer ship to take the atomics. There were too many dead here; she did not want Fish Speaker blood on her hands. Besides, she needed the slayers to do something more important than fighting Fish Speakers.

They needed to get a handle on what it meant to carry the essence of Spike. Specifically, what it meant to carry the essence of a ten thousand year old being that was mystically connected to a large portion of space-time. The slayers needed to research and practice their new found abilities in peace.

Surayya made a decision.

"Listen up." She said to all before her. "I'm going to contact the flag ship and order Afari to move the fleet out. I'm going to have the slayers research what it means to carry the essence of Spike."

Surayya began to retrieve the radio equipment in one of the back packs.

"The "Memories of Dawn" will be over the horizon in three hours. I'll transmit commands and then we move out. No doubt, Fish Speakers will triangulate us within the hour I transmit." Surayya sat the equipment in front of her.

"We can't use the shuttle. The heat trail alone would make us an easy target." She said.

"Master…" Karif began to say.

Surayya's eyes went wide. "Don't call me that!" She said. Surayya recognized the honorific used in freman clans to signify the sietch leader. She was not a Stilgar.

"My name is Surayya. Call me that or captain."

"Captain." Karif said, "Time is calling you." His voice was sincere.

Motorria jumped in. She recognized that phrase from the old freman call to worship. The core of freman belief was that Humans occupied both this world and the outer world and that the greater parts of ourselves were still in the outer world waiting to be born. That was the belief that made Muad'Dib so powerful among the freman. Muad'Dib was the voice of that outer world.

"Time is calling you." Karif said again. His blue within blue eyes were employing her for a specific response.

Motorria knew the response from her memories of the Missionaria Protectiva. The effects of the Panoplia Propheticus kept the fremen tight in the Bene Gesserit grasp.

"The daughters of Senaya hear the call of time." Motorria answered from memory. She crossed her arms together palm down. "Dawn comes, day comes and then night." She uncrossed her arms and turned her palms up. "He waits for us. Bless the coming and going of Him." Motorria said referring to Shai-Hulud.

Karif pulled three viles of a blue liquid from his robe. "Hear the voice of the Outer World." Karif handed one vile to each of the three slayers. "Answer the call of time."

"What was the kid playing at?" Surayya thought as the grasped the vile of blue liquid. She opened the vile and took a whiff. "Pure spice essence!" she thought. Surayya looked up at Motorria and Lisa. She could see the look of surprise on their faces. Between them they were holding enough wealth to purchase supplies for the fleet for the next five hundred years.

Surayya had no fear of the blue liquid. She was a reverend mother. She could easily convert it to the water of life.

"Drink." Karif commanded.

"So, the kid's been schooled in the voice." Surayya thought to herself as she filed that observation away for further analysis. "I hope he's not trying to get a spice orgy out of this." Surayya smiled as she signaled to the other slayers to consume the liquid. They drank the entire contents in one smooth motion.

The effect was immediate.

It felt as if fire was poured down their throats. Every vessel in their bodies constricted. The slayers began to cry tears of blood. Their limbs twitched as they loss muscle control.

'Poison!" Surayya's mind screamed. Yet there was something familiar about the feel of the drug. She could feel her mind begin to drift away. It became hard to focus on the here and now. For the slayers, time began to splinter.

"You will survive." Karif said. He moved around the cave making sure the slayers were as comfortable as he could make them. "This is not ordinary spice, this is not for heretics." He said. "Our own slayers have taken it many times. This spice has been blessed by magic."

Karif watched over the slayers as they entered the sacred trance. Soon, they would hear the voice of Shai-Hulud. He was jealous of them. This was something he would never be able to do. He was not a slayer. He watched over them and counted the hours until the "Memories of Dawn" would be over the horizon.


	11. Chapter 11

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

**No matter how exotic human civilization becomes, no matter the developments of life and society nor the complexity of the machine/human interface, there always come interludes of lonely power when the course of humankind, depends upon the relatively simple actions of single individuals.**

from The Tleilaxu Godbuk

She prowled the command deck waiting for something to happen. It had been hours since Surayya had taken a shuttle down to Arrakis. She'd heard nothing from them since they touched down. Afari Guerrero was the executive officer and it was her duty to carry out the captains orders and when things got bad to carry on without her. Afari prowled the command deck stopping occasionally at the captain's chair.

"Where was the captain?" she screamed to herself. It was not like her not to check in. Ironic, it was the captain's standing orders that away teams check in at the top of the hour even just to send the all ok signal.

"Incoming transmission." The slayer at the communications console said. "It's Fish Speaker Command"

"Put it in the command monitor." Afari said. This was the moment she had dreaded. She would have to sit in the captain's chair to access the transmission. This was the first step to admitting that something might be wrong on the surface of Arrakis. The image of Felicia Gorman filled the screen.

"I wish to speak to the captain." Commander Gorman said.

"The captain is not available right now. I am her executive officer. Anything you can tell her, you can tell me." Afari said in the same brisk tones that Commander Gorman had used.

"Under the authority of Fish Speaker Command, I order you and your Slayers to lay down your arms and prepare for boarding for the purpose of retrieving the Atreides House atomics." Gorman said in her strongest command tone.

"Here we go." Afari thought. The Fish Speakers had made it clear on multiple occasions that they wanted the atomic weapons that Leto had given them for the assault on Tailos Three. The destruction of the "Leit-Kynes" had provided the perfect excuse. The destruction of a public structure by an unknown enemy had more than once served the ulterior motives of a corrupt administration. Afari thought of an ancient Earth president.

"I can't do that." Afari thought as she gave hand signals to the command crew. The communications command aimed one of the bridge cameras at her. Afari's hand signals were being relayed by video only throughout the fleet. Silently, hundreds of Slayers began preparing their ships for war.

"The access codes are strictly controlled by the fleet commander which is unavailable at the moment. However, I will be happy to relay your demands to her."

Afari controlled what she said. She didn't want Fish speaker command to know Surayya was missing.

Gorman glared at her for a long moment.

"I will not be patronized by this child." Gorman thought with bitterness.

Afari could see the wheels spinning behind her eyes. Gorman was not going to take this stall laying down.

"She could always take it doggie-style." Afari quipped to herself. She smiled for no apparent reason. She was beginning to see why Surayya was a constant smart ass.

"I think I can learn to be the captain for a while." She thought to herself as a wave of confidence came over her.

"You have six hours before we consider other methods of retrieving those weapons." Gorman said. "We won't ask nicely next time." Gorman cut the transmission.

Afari stared at the screen for a moment as a genetic memory overcame her.

"Children with Power are very dangerous." She heard an old reverend mother say in her mind.

"It didn't work for the Harkonnen, it won't work now. Correct, Jessica?" Afari said to the memory within.

"Misuse of power is a fatal sin." Lady Jessica said. "Paul taught this often.

"I know." Afari said sadly. She knew the Fish Speakers had no such wisdom.

Afari, as well as senior fleet commanders had reviewed the video file Surayya made before she left for Arrakis. It contained two commands. Investigate and develop the powers of teleportation given to them by Spike. Surayya wanted them to understand what it meant to be one of Leto's slayers. Surayya wanted them to know themselves. The other command was to protect the fleet at all costs. No exceptions.

Afari could read between the lines. She waited five hours and fifty nine minutes before she ordered the fleet to abandon Arrakis.


	12. Chapter 12

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

"You've heard of animals chewing off a leg to escape a trap? There's an animal kind of trick. A human would remain in the trap, endure the pain, feigning death that he might kill the trapper and remove a threat to his kind."

Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam, testing Paul Atreides with the Gom Jabbar.

Three years have passed.

The holy war between the church of the ancient light and the heretics continue. Arrakis has become both a prison and a war zone. Fish Speakers desperately try to keep order in a crumbling empire. Bene Gesserit and Tleilaxu agents work in the fringes of the conflict to create a universe in their favor.

In the chaos, the Slayers persist.

"Her Graceful Measure" was a naked eye object. Surayya could easily see it from the dune top on which she lay. Leto designed it that way. He wanted people to know that death could be called from above.

Surayya used her night vision goggles to watch a supply caravan move along the horizon. Years of war had reduced Humans to using ancient motorized vehicles. The constant attacks had totally destroyed the infrastructure of Arrakis. The ecological transformation had been set back hundreds of years. Water reservoirs had been smashed, satellites had been blown from orbit supply lines had been cut. The planet was now taking back what Leto had stolen. There was desert sand in the cities.

Surayya brushed her hair from her eyes. She wore it short nowadays, but there was always a strand or two that found it's way into her eyes. The desert had darkened her. Her lithe youthful figure was now mostly muscle. She had calluses on her feet. Her hands were now brown and leathery. Her eyes were the Freman blue in blue. She couldn't remember the last time she smiled.

The changes were the same for Motorria and Lisa. Motorria had lost a few kilograms. Lisa was as stoic as ever.

They watched the caravan for vampires. Since the war, people had started moving around under cover of night. That left them open to another kind of attack. The Arrakis war zone had made the planet a feeding ground for every vampire in the galaxy. The slayer fleet had long left orbit and now had the status of myth.

Surayya's guerilla war, however, was a fact.

She raised her hand, and then clamped it into a fist. Surayya opened two fingers, made a circle then pointed them at the vampires that moved under cover of night.

Motorria and Lisa caught sight of them through their night vision goggles and moved in for the kill.

Three years.

Surayya remembered that day in the cave when they had been given slayer spice. That was the day everything had changed for her. She loved her sisters dearly. She would do anything for them. She would even fight to the death for them. But she was no longer Leto's slayer. She was her own woman now. Both Motorria and Lisa felt the same way.

The spice had opened their minds.

For Surayya, it felt as if she was floating out of her body and into the huge overarching presence of something old and powerful. She was in the presence of the Last Sandworm on Arrakis and it had the answers to all of her questions.

The spice had burned its way into her system with frightening speed. Her Bene Gesserit training was helpless before it. That spice was secreted by the last sandworm on Arrakis, a sandworm that burrowed so deeply into the sand that not even Leto knew it existed.

The only being that could reach this sandworm was Spike in his luminous form. Spike grew the sandworm from a deep patch of sand plankton. The sand plankton were photosensitive and Spike was their Sun. As he grew them he modulated his light patterns encrypting the information he wanted to convey until it was encoded into their DNA. By his light, Spike mutated the sand plankton.

He kept the developing sandtrout trapped on an underground island surrounded by water. When the sandworm emerged it was like nothing else on Arrakis. It produced spice that only affected slayers. This was his last gift to them. Spike produced a spice that allowed them to commune with any Slayer from the past. Not as a memory, but as the real thing.

Spike gave them the power to snatch slayers out of time among other things.

Surayya had talked with many slayers from the past learning about their lives and what it meant to them to be a slayer. She knew now she was not a soldier. She was definitely not a tool of Leto anymore.

Surayya gave the signal. The three slayers launched into the vampires like a pack of hungry wolves.


	13. Chapter 13

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

**Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it. Eventually, they lose touch with reality... and fall.**

Edric, Guild Navigator

Executed along with Reverend Mother Helen Mohiam in 10,207 A.G. by Fremen Naib Stilgar on orders from Paul's sister Alia Atreides.

Supreme Commander Gorman watched the battle fleet deploy on the command screen. She could see in ultra high resolution the thousands of Fish Speaker troops that poured across the face of Arrakis. Though Leto had banned computers throughout the Empire such technology was freely available from IX. Gorman had no inhibitions against using such technology. The huge screen before her showed her ground troops pacifying deep desert tribes, hundreds of battleships in orbit around the planet and battle summations and projections as text and graphics in the margins.

Three years and still she had not brought the murders that destroyed the "Leit-Kynes" to justice. To make matters worse, everyone had chosen a side. The civilian population of Arrakis had come to hate her and the Fish Speakers.

They were just doing their job. The kidnappings and the executions were necessary to maintain order.

Why didn't the civilians understand that?

Gorman turned to the representative of the Bene Gesserit who had volunteered her services to the Fish Speakers as an advisor. Next to the Bene Gesserit was the Tleilaxu master Brauch. The same Slayers that had disappeared three years before had killed several high ranking Tleilaxu Masters claiming that they were vampires. The Tleilaxu had a vested interest in Arrakis. They pulled every string they had and spent a fair amount of spice to get a seat on the Fish Speaker war council.

What secrets had Leto unlocked in his breeding program? The Tleilaxu Breeding Masters had to know.

Brauch folded his gaunt hands under his chin. He turned his orange colored speckled eyes to the Reverend Mother seated next to him.

He didn't trust either the Fish Speaker or Reverend Mother. Both of the women had terrible secrets. He could feel it.

Reverend Mother Angela Basara listened to the Fish Speaker Commander. The woman droned on and on in her ear about battle plans and casualty projections. Basara had other concerns about the assault on Arrakis. Her preborn memories told her that military force never succeeded against religious fanatics. The Fish Speakers had only succeeded in creating hundreds of new martyrs. If the Fish Speakers didn't give up soon this war would last for generations.

Basara was interested in something else altogether. In the days before the destruction of the "Leit-Kynes" she was receiving strange reports from the Arrakis Chapterhouse. Apparently, Reverend Mother Huma was kidnapping Leto's slayers and extracting genetic material. Both the generic materials and Huma had disappeared. Her assistant Norma had been killed.

Reverend Mother Basara was charged with investigating the mystery of what had happened to the Arrakis Chapterhouse and what were these Slayers that Leto had created.

Her preborn memories held no direct data on slayers but from second hand testimonies of people who were born and died thousands of years ago she knew slayers were extremely dangerous. If they could be tamed for the Bene Gesserit, not even the Fish Speaker hordes could stop them.

Basara turned her attention back to the Fish Speaker Commander for a moment as she mentioned "Her Graceful Measure."

Who was this woman expecting to fight? "Her Graceful Measure" was a planet killer. It's use was overkill and Supreme Commander Gorman had brought it to Arrakis. Basara had seen it all before. An individual with supreme power isolated from her humanity making increasely desperate decisions. It was like this when the Harkonnen were here. Basara didn't have to be Bene Gesserit to know that things would not end well.

Still, she had her contacts in the Missionaria Protectiva. She knew something that Commander Gorman did not. That even now there were slayers on Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit still had contacts in Sitech Kindle. She would wait until the right time to use them.

"This is why I brought you here. " Gorman said as she switched the display.

On the screen, the image of a young woman appeared. She was in her mid twenties and wore a torn Fish Speaker uniform. She had dark hair and a trim figure. She looked lost and hurt. There were scratches on her face. The video feed showed that she was locked in a holding cell.

"A few days ago, an assault team disappeared in the Sothern polar region of Dune. When we went to look for them, this was what we found." Gorman signaled for the guard to administer an electric shock to the prisoner.

Immediately, her face turned into something hideous. Ridges appeared above her brow. Sharp fangs protruded from her mouth. Faster than any human could move, she grabbed the guard that had just shocked her and pulled him to the bars.

Her mouth opened to drink his blood.

The other prison guards were on her in a flash shocking her over and over until she retreated to a corner of the cell. The woman's face returned to normal.

"A rouge face dancer!" the Tleilaxu master exclaimed. He was puzzled. He had no record of the Tleilaxu employing Face Dancers on Arrakis.

"Vampire." Gorman said proudly. "Now we have a weapon to fight the slayers where ever they are. These creatures will make the ultimate terror weapon. Once we train them, we can use them to pacify the civilian elements. "

Both Basara and the Tleilaxu looked shocked.

Basara had her preborn memories of the "Initiative" and what a total catastrophe that had been.

"This woman is insane." Basara thought.


	14. Chapter 14

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

"A true leader is a servant of a personal vision. From the vision come priorities and values. What then of the oracle? Is the oracle a creator or creation of the future?"

Surayya Raisa Atreides

Captain's log

She could feel it moving in the darkness something huge dark and ugly. It felt like gravity, like a giant hand pressing down on her chest. It felt wrong and violent and it scared her deeply. Surayya was not asleep. This was not a slayer dream. She was awake and standing at the mouth of sitech Kindle.

After patrolling, She, Motorria and Lisa had returned to the sitech. They removed their night vision goggles and outer ware, shaking the dust from their clothing. Surayya wondered how much of the desert sand was actually vampire dust. The thought freaked her out momentarily.

"Do you feel that?" Lisa asked. Surayya could see the worry on her face. Their slayer senses had been changed, focused, and amplified by using the slayer spice. They no longer needed to dream in order to see the future. They were having a waking dream. They had smaller precognitive visions in the past, but nothing as powerful and as clear as this.

"This is how it started for me." Surayya could hear Muad'Dib say in her mind. "The night the Harkonnen chased my mother and I into the desert I had a waking vision. I could feel the structure of my mind changing."

Surayya stepped forward peering into the darkness with every sense she had. Nothing moved in the desert not even the wind.

Somewhere in the near universe a decision had been made that could destroy them all. The first thing she thought of was "Her Graceful Measure." She watched it in the night sky for several seconds while doing the calculations in her head. "Her Graceful Measure" had not shifted from orbit.

Still, something was off.

The other slayers in the sitech began to gather around her whispering in soft tones full of dread.

"What's happening?" The slayer Lucillia asked as she joined the other slayers near Surayya. "Something terrible has occurred. The door to chaos has been opened."

That's what the fremen slayers called it. "The door to chaos." It meant that a great destroyer had been unleashed upon the world.

"Call the Watcher." Surayya asked. "Tell him to bring our spice. We need to talk to the Great Worm."

Gorman awoke covered in her own blood. After the war council with the Bene Gesserit and the Tleilaxu master she had gone down personally to view the vampire creature. She had it taken out of its cell and held in chains.

That's when it got lose. Gorman remembered screaming, blood and teeth as the creature rushed towards her. Gorman turned and faced the monster standing behind her.

"It's like being born again." It said. "Everything is so bright and clear." It changed it ridged face back to the innocent looking face of the dead Fish speaker.

"And you feel…"

"So strong." Gorman said completing her sentence. Gorman stretched her arms to feel how this new body felt.

I can sense everything now." Gorman said. "I can feel the air in the room, humming of the ship and …"

Her face displayed shock.

"Slayers! She growled. "Hundreds of them below on Arrakis!"

"Come." She said. "I must assume command of "Her Graceful Measure." "I'm going to kill them all even if I have to burn the planet to a crisp."


	15. Chapter 15

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

"I have no speech. No name. I live in the action of Death. The blood cry, the penetrating wound. I am destruction, absolute, alone."

The First Slayer as spoken by the Avatar.

She stood on a hill. She was dark, naked, and alone. Her hair was long, stringy and full of sand. The sun above burned her skin and dried her lips. The desert heat was cooking her and her young body was wracked in pain. She did not care.

She had come seeking God and nothing else mattered.

She was a little girl. She was five. She had no memory of how she got here and no thought of any life before this moment. All she knew was that she wanted to be one with God and to live with him forever. The horrific noise approached from below and a midnight black cloud sped towards her from the horizon.

She waited on God.

The desert sand undulated. Hot wind blew fine sand into the clear blue sky. Something huge moved under the surface of Arrakis. Something huge and long undulated its way towards her.

She could feel the ground screaming like a billion jet engines under her feet, like the planet itself was going to be torn apart.

She cried with all of her might letting her fear flow out of her as she embraced the horror of loss. Her tears were mixed with a primal scream not heard since ape became Man. Her tears flowed freely over her face. Death was here and she didn't care. She fixed herself on the sand dune. There was nothing else to do. What could she do?

She waited on God.

A black hole appeared beneath her and in that darkness was a sea of teeth that shone like a billion white stars in a hellish darkness. The worm exploded from beneath her consuming her, the hill top and over seven hundred thousand square meters of sand.

God had arrived and consumed her.

She was asleep and could not awake. Shapes haunted her dreams. Monsters with sharp teeth and distorted faces hungered for her in the dark. Surayya moaned in both pain and fear. The other slayers in the cave were gathered around her.

All of the slayers at Sietch Kindle had undergone the spice trance in response to a undeniable premonition that had overcome all of the slayers at once.

Something evil had awakened. The power of it made their souls resonate like a plucked string.

They had all undergone the spice trance in order to get a vision of it.

That was days ago.

All of the other slayers had completed their trance with precious little information.

That is, all of the slayers except Surayya. She was in the third day of her trance.

"She's an Atreides." Motorria said sadly. "They have a special affinity for the spice." Motorria cradled the face of her friend in her hands. Surayya felt cold and clammy. She was near death.

The watcher, Karif, was examining her body for signs of what was happening. His hands moved over her, taking her pulse, checking her pupils for dilation. He did not know what was happening with Surayya.

Motorria knew. Surayya was dying.

"There is nothing we can do for her." He said. "She is with God now."

The young girl was curled in the fetal position. She slept on a bed of bones in a cave filled with the sands of the desert. She moaned, she cried and in her dreams she fought monsters.

Periodically, a leg would spasm.

She was all alone and scared.

"No friends.."

She could hear a gruff voice behind her. It was the voice of a woman. The young girl felt the woman curl herself around her; she felt her breasts press against her back and the warmth of the woman diffuse through her providing comfort and protection. The terror subsided.

"Mama?" the young girl said as she pushed herself back into the woman. Her voice was at once a plead and a question.

"Have no fear daughter. I will be with you always."

The First Slayer wrapped herself around Surayya and shielded her from any harm. After a long time Surayya opened her eyes and stared into the pitch black face of the First Slayer. Her face was covered with tribal markings and tattoos that protected her in the sprit world. Surayya then looked around and out of the mouth of the cave.

The sands were spiked with teeth and undulated of its own in an unnatural way. She was still in the belly of the worm. She was still in the belly of the beast.

Commander Gorman made her hundredth kill.

She pushed the body of dead The Fish Speaker away as she wiped the blood from her face. The Fish Speaker she had just killed would rise soon as part of her force to take control of "Her graceful measure."

Gorman and her sire entered the command elevator. Things were moving along swiftly. So far they had over two hundred Fish Speakers converted to vampires. It was decided to limit their numbers to five hundred out of simple necessary.

There were only ten thousand humans on "Her Graceful Measure." They choose to limit their numbers in order to stretch the food supply.

Gorman's sire was named Alisa. She had dark hair and youthful features. She wore a constant smile even when she killed. She followed her new commander everywhere she went. The commander had a viciousness she admired.

Destroying Arrakis and eating the Humans was going to be fun!

The elevator door opened and she followed Gorman onto the command deck.

"Let's see exactly how much antimatter this ship has." She said.

"I know you." Surayya said to the First Slayer. They were both sitting upright. Surayya was still staring outward into the surrealistic landscape.

"All my daughters know me. I am the pearl that sleeps in the sand." The First slayer said.

"I am your Eve. I am the first among many."

Surayya performed a mentat prime computation. This was not a dream. She remembered taking spice. This was not a vision. She could smell and feel the first slayer before her.

This was real.

This place occupied space and had duration.

The Kwisatz Haderach was the shorting of the way, a shortcut through higher spatial dimensions that allowed Paul Muad'Dib visions of the future.

This was Paul's power taken to the next level.

Because Spike had become a nexus, due to the amulet connecting him to everything and the essence of Spike was used to create Leto's slayers this made Surayya was more than a simple nexus.

She was the ultra nexus.

Everything in the universe and beyond was connected through her. She could reach anywhere and anytime and pull any set of elements together.

This was not a place she was dreaming. This was a place she'd constructed out of other things that had existed elsewhere in the universe.

Surayya was the builder of worlds.

"How long have you been here?" Surayya asked the First Slayer with mounting terror. She already knew the answer.

"I have been here for millions of years." The First Slayer said. "I was pulled out of time by Spike. I was brought here and transformed.

The First Slayer stood as the ground beneath her began to shake and the billions of teeth outside of the cave undulated seeking something to tear apart.

"I am the First Slayer and I am also the Last Sandworm of Arrakis."


	16. Chapter 16

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

First Slayer: The Slayer does not walk in this world.

BUFFY: I walk. I talk. I shop, I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There are trees in the desert since you moved out. And I don't sleep on a bed of bones. Now give me back my friends.

First Slayer: No Friends.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
Restless  
S04E22

She dreamed with her eyes wide open.

This prophetic dream would not wait until she was asleep. It demanded to be seen now. She sat cross legged on the cave floor across from Sineya, the First Slayer, and a vision of Arrakis burning like a ember from an angry fire. The brown planet was pock marked with huge red orange holes that was the sand itself burning at thousands of degrees. Arrakis looked like a brown ball that had been stabbed over and over again and was bleeding into space. In the background, she heard the screaming of millions and she smelled the burning of flesh.

"It's the end of the world." Surayya cried to herself.

Muad'Dib within her stirred uneasy. He recognized this moment. He had experienced this a thousand times before. The vision trance was upon Surayya and she was losing herself in it.

Now the vision turned. Surayya could see "Her Graceful Measure" fire a terawatt beam of high energy anti protons into a seemly empty spot in the deep desert. The sand burned away as the particle beam stabbed into Arrakis. The vision jumped to reveal the squirming shape of a burning sand worm.

"That is when I die." The first Slayer said. "After, all is darkness, and we are no more."

Surayya knew what she meant. The First Slayer was their connection to the outer world. If she died, then the slayers would be cut off from their higher power and darkness would consume the galaxy.

"I saw this in my visions." Paul said. "I never suspected it would be supernatural in origin."

"I don't understand." Surayya said genuinely bewildered.

I am the source of you now." Sineya said. "From this moment on your dreams will come from me.

Sineya held her hand out as something sharp appeared.

"Here." The First Slayer said as she handed Surayya the scythe. The First Slayer had pulled it out of time. "Take this, it's yours now." She said.

Surayya held the scythe as her eyes began to water. The scythe was a simple shaft with a red blade at one end and sharpened wood at the other. After thousands of years, the red blade was still as shiny, sharp and as clean as the day the Guardians had made it. Surayya doubted if the scythe's blade would ever be dull. She could feel the power radiating from it.

It felt like it belonged to her.

"You need your friends, your sisters, they keep you strong, and they keep you connected to the world you protect. I learned that the hard way." The First Slayer said.

She hugged Surayya and said "I love you."

Surayya hugged her back and said "I love you more."

And with that Surayya with her scythe disappeared from the cave.

The Avatar of the First Slayer waited a moment after Surayya disappeared and said to herself "You need one other thing my daughter." And with that, Sineya pulled one other object out of time.

Motorria wrapped her black robes around her. She exhaled with sadness as she looked out of the sitech cave to the desert floor below. The tan sand was smooth and still in the hot desert air. This was the fourth day of Surayya's coma and things did not look good. The watcher had no idea of why she had not awakened. The fremen shaman had something entirely different to say.

He told her that Surayya's sprit was in the crucible which was the palm of God. They told her, Surayya would return from the other world with great knowledge or not at all.

She did not want to hear it. Surayya was her best friend. She loved her. She had known Surayya since before the academy. They were friends since they were children. Now, it ends like this. Poisoned and dying on some dirty cave floor. Motorria used all of her reverend mother training to keep herself from breaking down. She grasped her hand to her mouth and screamed into her palm.

Warm hands settled on her shoulders. She could feel a familiar presence pull her close. Karif wrapped his arms around Motorria. They had become close over the years.

"Al-gare, do not morn. She has not left us." He said in intimate tones.

"Al-gare" was fremen for "Slaves of God". It's what they called all the slayers.

Motorria pulled away. She understood what Karif was saying. The future was always in motion.  
Lucillia joined them. Her face reflected concern for Surayya and the greater fear of that dreadful unknown that had been secretly unleashed upon the world.

"Her Graceful Measure is moving." Lucillia said. "Sietches from the other side of the planet report that the station is shifting orbit. It will be over the horizon in two hours."

Motorria could see the tears in Lucillia eyes and hated it.

"No tears for the dead!" She thought. "No tears for us, ever!"

"We are Slayers." Motorria softly said to Lucillia. "We face the future with teeth bared."  
Lucillia managed a weak smile.

"We never meant for things to go this far." Lucillia said to herself.

"What?, sweetie?" Motorria said puzzled.

"We bombed the Church of Ancient light." She said casually. "How did everything spiral out of control?"  
Motorria had her pinned against the cave wall with her arm across her throat before Lucillia could move.

"You did WHAT!" Motorria roar filled the cave. She pressed her arm across Lucillia's windpipe with full slayer strength.

"A religion based on a vampire? "Blasphemy!" Lucillia croaked. If she was not a slayer also, she would have been dead by now. The true faith demanded they be silenced."

Motorria could not believe her ears. Her body shook with rage. She was deciding into how many pieces to break Lucillia's body into when she heard a trembled whisper from Karif.

The tone of it made her hair stand on end.

It was a tone of pure reverence.

Motorria turned and saw Surayya, white as bone, floating outside the cave wall. Motorria turned her head again and clearly saw her best friend lying motionless on the cave floor. She turned her head back to the cave entrance.

Surayya was floating there silent and motionless.

"Bi-location?!" Motorria thought. She was amazed.

And just like that she was gone.

Surayya moaned as she awoke from her coma. She rubbed the back of her head and sat up. Everyone was staring at her.

"You people act like you've seen a ghost." She said in the most smart ass tone she could muster.

Surayya stood. In her hand she held the scythe. Every slayer in the cave recognized it.

"Leave her." Karif said gently to Motorria. "She made her choice in the matter of Faith. That can only be judged by God." His brown eyes showed his sincerity.

"Thousands died." Motorria hissed.

"I know." Karif said. "We have seen signs and wonders this day…"

"She killed thousands." Motorria said interrupting Karif. Every part of her demanded vengeance.

"Such extremes are acceptable in the jihad." Karif said. "Moto, it is obvious. Your presence here, the influence of Spike, the rise in vampires,  
Surayya hajj to the outer world, her return with the ultimate symbol of Slayer power and now this final sign. It is obvious, my love. This is a holy war." he said.

Just then two flashes occurred in the back of the cave as a trim young girl with blond hair appeared. She had a stake in her hand. Her eyes scanned the cave.

Surayya recognized her instantly. Motorria approached her.

"Hi!" She said. "I'm Buffy the vampire slayer. And you are?"


	17. Chapter 17

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

"You will never be able to grasp the source of our power."

Buffy to Adam

"Primeval"

S04E21

She was a source of wonder.

Buffy spent the better part of an hour regaling tales of her adventures. The girls took to her immediately. They formed a semi circle around her as they sat on the cave floor. A sort of game evolved whereby as Buffy told a tale the other Slayers would jump in and try to finish it based on their generic memories. Most of the time they got the details wrong but the general feel of the story right.

"That was the first time I met Kendra." Buffy said, "The Order of Taraka came to Sunnydale on the orders of Spike." At her mention of Spike's name Buffy could feel the tension in the room jump. She would ask them about that later. "One guy was made out of bugs!" she said. "Can you imagine a person that's made out of bugs?"

The Arrakis Slayers decided not to tell Buffy about the God Emperor Leto. They knew her feelings about very large snake men. Buffy eyes came back to Surayya time and time again.

"Excuse me." Buffy said to Surayya. "Have we met before?"

Surayya smiled inwardly. "Not yet." She said cryptically. Buffy's comment confirmed Surayya's suspicion that this was the Buffy before Spike sent her back through time to retrieve the Drogran scepter. This was the Buffy before she met Glory. Why would the First Slayer send this version of Buffy here? This version of Buffy must be special.

"Tell us about Adam." Surayya said.

Buffy could tell the dark skinned girl before her was the leader. It was clear that she had power and the respect of everyone in the room. Buffy made a point to study her.

"Adam?" Buffy said baffled. "That low rent Frankenstein's monster? I ripped his heart out."

"You haven't gone home yet." Motorria said. "You haven't had the dreams!"

"Huh?" Buffy said. "We were all pretty jazzed after we closed down the initiative. I doubt if we're going to sleep. Besides, Xander picked up a bunch of movies. "

There was something about the night she closed down the initiative that ate away at the Slayers. Something of supreme importance happened that night. Motorria looked at Surayya. They were both searching their memories for the answer.

Motorria focused in on her memories of Willow. The answer hit her like a ton of bricks.

"The joining spell!" She said.

At that, Surayya knew what the First Slayer wanted them to do and was terrified.

**HOLDEN: **

So I'm a _vampire_. How weird is that?

**BUFFY: **

Sorry.

**HOLDEN: **

No, no. Feels great. Strong. Like I'm connected to a powerful all-consuming evil that's gonna suck the world into a fiery oblivion. How 'bout you?

**BUFFY: **

Not so much connected.

Buffy, The Vampire Slayer

"Conversations with Dead People"

S07E7

She could see why Gorman was a commander.

She was focused, organized and driven. In a few days Gorman had the newly recruited vampires organized with rank, deployment and billet. Over the last seventy two hours Gorman had sired key people in positions of power throughout "Her Graceful Measure."

Once everyone was in place, taking over the ship came down to issuing a single command.

The sleeper agents flipped into battle mode with full vamp face and carried out their assignments. It took less than six minutes to seize command of the huge battle station. There was some blood spilled but most of the Humans survived.

They planned to use them as food, later.

Alisa was developing a crush on Gorman which was silly since everyone knew vampires didn't have souls.

"A vampire with a soul? That's ridiculous." Alisa thought to herself as she poured over the project management spreadsheet. She was figuring out how many Humans needed to be sacrificed to radiation poisoning in order to push the drive engines to over one hundred and twenty percent of rated specs.

The thought of a vampire with a soul was as ludicrous as the thought of a cast iron puppy.

"Um, puppies." Alisa thought. "Now I'm hungry."

Alias logged out of her workstation and went by one of the holding pens for a quick snack before she joined Gorman on the command deck.

"Her Graceful Measure" was pure magic.

Hundreds of years ago Leto had ordered it build. The Humans basically weaponized a ten kilometer asteroid. Running the kilometers of pipes and wiring was the easy part. The question was how to move such a massive object. "Her Graceful Measure" had to be fast. It had to have the ability to jump into a firefight and dominate several solar systems at a time and then quickly leave to put out the next fire. The internal volume of "Her Graceful Measure" was over two thousand cubic kilometers.

The biggest question was how to move her. The thought of firing up huge rocket engines and splattering the ship's delicate ecosystem all over the place was just funny. Leto had a better answer. He simply invented engines that removed all effects of external acceleration from the inside of the ship. This meant that "Her Graceful Measure" could pull twenty gee's of acceleration without it being noticed on the inside.

Gorman watched Arrakis move beneath her. The command center showed an external view of the planet. Kilometer after kilometer of the planet rolled by. Soon she would be over the southern polar region where Spike's old Sietch was located. There were Slayers there, she could feel it.

"Commander." One of her trusted aides said. "We're receiving replied from all over the galaxy."

"Good." Gorman thought to herself. Soon after she seized command Gorman issued an invitation to every vampire in the galaxy. Arrakis would soon be the center of a feeding frenzy.

Her sire joined her on the bridge.

"I'm bored." She said as she sat in the chair next to Gorman. "You know, we've never actually tested the main weapon. We don't know if it works."

Gorman could see the mischievous grin on her sire's face.

"Fine." Gorman said. "Pick a target."

A river of fire fell from the sky.

"What's that?" Buffy asked. From where she was sitting she could see part of the sky beyond the dunes. An impossibly bright yellow white light came out of the sky and struck a point beyond the horizon. The ground shook. Smoke began to fill the sky. The Slayers scrambled to the entrance to get a better look.

"It's the beginning of the end." Surayya said to Buffy.


	18. Chapter 18

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

"The highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences."

Leit-Kynes

Speech to Court of _**Saddam IV**_

"Dune…Arrakis…desert planet. Not a single drop of water flows on the surface of Dune." Buffy meditated on this strange planet. The hot desert wind that blew in her face mixed with fine particles of desert sand. Buffy let the hot dry air caress her face as she considered the situation at hand.

The first thing that struck her was that fact that she was not freaking out. She dealt with the shock of her new environment. She had spent the last few years on a Hellmouth. A cave full of women just like her was a lot less freaky than being killed by the Master.

Apparently, she was ten thousand years in the future on a planet that was until recently the center of a galactic empire ruled by, of all things a giant worm. Buffy was sure that somewhere in the great demon afterlife the former mayor of Sunnydale was laughing his ass off.

And the girls, the women! They were all slayers. Their leader, Surayya, refused to tell her how multiple slayers came to be. Whatever permitted her and Faith to exist at the same time as slayers somehow had been amplified and made permanent. There had to be at least fifty slayers in this cave. None of them were older than twenty-five.

Buffy's had changed out of her street cloths and into something called a "stillsuit". This was an outfit for the deep desert. It used body motion to recycle moisture into drinking water.

"Not a single drop of water flowed on Arrakis…" she thought.

And that wasn't the weird part.

Their leader, Surayya, had met the First Slayer. The First Slayer! It was the first slayer that started the chain than continued to even here far in the future. That gave Buffy a strange sort of hope. If the Human race was still around thousands of years in the future, then that meant that she was able to defeat the various apocalypses that threatened her world. There was a glimmer of hope in that.

Buffy has asked Surayya about the First Slayer. Her response was cryptic.

"What's the matter? " She said. "You can't wait till you get back to Sunnydale?" she said with a smile on her face. "You know what I'm trying to figure out?" Surayya asked her.

"No, what?" Buffy said.

"I'm trying to figure out if this is the first time we've met and if it is, why didn't you remember me the first time I met you?" Surayya said.

"Huh?" Buffy replied. This was the first time they had met as far as Buffy was concerned.

"Still, I guess this is the first time we've ever met, from your point of view. " Surayya said.

A voice whispered in Surayya's head. It was Ghanima, Leto's sister.

"Slayers walk the Golden Path. Seers cannot see them either with the mind or eye." She said in Surayya's head. That's when she knew. The golden path ensured Buffy would not return to Sunnydale seeing the future by remembering it. She would not remember her own actions here since she was a slayer too. Buffy would have no memory of these events once she was returned to Sunnydale, if she survived what was to come.

Surayya held the scythe out for Buffy to see. Buffy examined it with a keen eye memorizing every part of the weapon. Something possessive rose up within her. The scythe screamed out to her. It felt like it was hers. She had to have it.

Surayya watched her with her Bene Gesserit training. She watched Buffy's face and muscle tension. Surayya could tell that she was considering a range of actions from simply taking the scythe, to the bitter resignation that the scythe would never be hers.

Leto had often told her: "The flesh often betrays the desires of the heart. Learn to read body language. Everything you need to know is there."

"Don't worry." Surayya said. "You'll have it one day, a long, long time ago.

Surayya stepped backed from Buffy and addressed the other slayers in her command voice.

"Get ready everyone." She said. "We've got a sandworm to catch."

Buffy stood in a long line with the other women out in the middle of the desert. They had hiked half a day without resting until they were in the middle of nowhere.

"Normally, we would use a 'thumper' to call a sandworm." The Slayer called Motorria said to her. Buffy examined her features carefully. She could not believe how young she was.

"My God, she's just a baby!" Buffy thought to herself. "But, I wasn't much older when I was called." There was something about Motorria that Buffy found familiar.

"She reminds me of Willow." Buffy thought.

"Surayya's got other ideas." Motorria said, finishing her comment to Buffy. "She wants us to pray."

Buffy looked at Motorria trying to understand what she just said.

The slayers sat on the sand, in no particular order, as they began to chant. Surayya instructed the Fremen Slayers to begin with the worship call to Shai-Hulud. This was the chant used on holy days before taking the water of life. A slow low murmuring filled the desert air.

Surayya stood and stomped her left foot in rhythm with the Fremen prayer.

"Sineya, come. Sineya, come. Time is calling you. We are calling you. Your daughters are calling you. Sineya come!" Surayya sang.

Buffy found the odd song intriguing and disturbing. Something half remembered stirred in her mind.

"Here, take this." A young boy said. His name was Karif. He called himself a Watcher.

"Well, at least he's not old and British." Buffy thought as she took the vial of dark blue liquid. She watched a few of the other Slayers quickly drink the liquid. "When in Rome…" Buffy thought as she downed the spice essence in one motion.

Surayya saw Buffy drink the spice secreted from God. Her heart felt wrenched as Buffy began to spasm. Motorria and a few of the other slayers held her down. This felt just like the time she ordered her crew, her friends, her fleet to undergo the spice agony at Tailos Three. Many slayers died because of that decision.

"It was necessary, I had no choice." Surayya thought to herself as she continued to sing. She desperately fought to convince herself she made the right choice. Her emotions overwhelmed her as tears burst forward from feelings long suppressed.

"No moisture for the dead!" She screamed to herself. Surayya took all of her sadness and anger and focused that energy on calling Sineya the God-Worm from the depths of Arrakis. Her singing took on a fever pitch and her feet wore a trench in the desert sand.

Buffy lay on her back with a few of the slayers over her. She twitched as her stomach muscles contracted violently over and over again. Buffy felt time shatter into a billion shiny pieces held together like a string of pearls. Only, she was the string and her memories were the pearls. To Buffy's great shock, she had memories of things she hadn't done yet.

"There is no such thing as the past, the present or the future." Buffy thought. "There is only unbroken Eternity filtered through Human awareness. "

Buffy saw the totality of her life.

She saw herself standing on a structure build by madmen, she saw herself protecting her sister, she saw herself; with arms spread wide launching herself into a circle of light. She saw how to defeat Glory. She saw her mother die, she saw Tara die, she saw Willow go mad, and there, beneath Sunnydale the place where all of this started. She saw Spike changed into a living flame and a thousand Turok-Han die.

"Spike!" she barely managed to think. That was the moment she decided not to kill him, ever.

Her life was spread out before her and she watched every moment of it determined to somehow remember as much of it as she could. She saw this moment and what was to come.

Buffy felt the ground beneath her tremble. The vibrations rippled along her spine. She looked to her left and saw off in the distance something impossible happen. She saw a huge sandworm emerge from the ground. It was at least five hundred meters across

She wasn't shocked. In fact, something very deep within her, something primeval, was happy.

Surayya signaled to the other slayers to come. They ran towards the sandworm. Motorria helped Buffy to her feet. The sandworm stood very still as they scrambled up its side around to the top. The Slayers rigged harnesses to hold themselves to the worm.

From atop of the huge beast, Buffy could see clear to the horizon. The sandworm began to move slowly at first and then more quickly. The undulating of the dunes was hypnotic. Surayya came to Buffy.

"We have to go now. Mother has things to teach us. But, we will return." She said.

And with that, all of the Slayers, except Buffy, teleported away in a flash of light.

Buffy looked around the huge top side of the sandworm. She was alone and not afraid. She had seen the necessity of this in the spice vision.

Until they returned, Buffy would be the only Slayer on Arrakis.


	19. Chapter 19

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

You do not take from this universe. It grants you what it will.

Paul Muad'Dib

She hid in the ventilation system well away from the vampires. Reverend Mother Basara used every bit of her Bene Gesserit training to avoid the monsters that roamed the halls of the battle station. The things she'd seen over the last few days shook her to the core. The legends of ancient Earth were true. There were things that went bump in the dark and she had seen the unholy terror of their ways.

Basara had seen the monsters slaughter the Humans with a viciousness that shocked her. Her Bene Gesserit training was no match for the primeval terror that fluttered in her stomach like millions of flesh eating butterflies.

On the first day, she watched helplessly as Tleilaxu Master Brauch was turned into one of them. His blood covered the leather table they were tied too. What could they want with a Tleilaxu Master? Perhaps what they wanted was a race of shape shifting vampires, or worse yet, access to Leto's breeding program. Something terrifying came out of Leto's breeding program. The vampires mentioned it with dread and even fear. The word they used was Slayer. Basara believed that Leto found something in the Human gene codes, something that could be manipulated and twisted towards an evil end. The Tleilaxu were masters of genetic manipulation.

Basara waited patiently in the shadows fighting to survive and waiting for her chance to meet those terrible Slayers.

"I can smell her, you know." Alisa said to Commander Gorman. "That Bene Gesserit. She's hiding in the ventilation system. I can smell her every time I pass an air duct. "

"We'll get her out soon enough." Gorman said as she focused of the department reports that filled her view screen. Even dead, she liked to run a tight ship.

"Imagine," Gorman continued, "One of us with access to thousands of years of genetic memories. We'll put an end to the Slayers once and for all. Imagine the magics we'll rediscover!"

Gorman sounded positively enthusiastic.

"And when I finish with Arrakis, I'm going to take the rest of the galaxy. With "Her Graceful Measure" under my command I will become an Empress. The entire galaxy will become my feeding ground."

Gorman smiled an evil smile.

"How long until we've within firing range of Spike's old Sitech?" Gorman asked.

"Fifteen minutes." Alisa answered.

"Good." Gorman said. "Destroying the cave of the traitor will get the Slayers full attention."

"I'm sure it will." Alisa agreed. In the back of her mind she wondered if that was such a good idea. She remembered what happened to the last Emperor that went to Arrakis.

Buffy waited on the worm's back. The other slayers had provided her with cloth that protected her against the burning rays of the sun. Her stillsuit fed her meager drops of water during the long hours. She waited for Surayya and her comrades to return from wherever they had teleported too.

"Mother has things to teach us." Their leader, Surayya, had said.

"For such a good leader she mighty cryptic." Buffy thought. "Maybe, that's how everybody speaks in the future."

"Great," Buffy said to herself. "I'm on the planet of deep thoughts and grave tomes."

Buffy ran her hand over the rough, ridged surface of the sandworm's back. She was surprised at how warm and alive it felt. The sandworm shifted in response to her.

"How could something this huge even know I'm here?" she thought.

Buffy let the visions from the last of the spice flow over her. She saw herself with Adam in the Initiative. She saw her friends evoke the joining spell that made them all one being with Buffy as the Hand. She saw herself with glowing orange eyes turning mortar shells into doves with a single wave of her hand.

"You cannot hope to grasp the source of our power…"

The voice was hers but not hers. Something old and terrible had spoken through her. Buffy watched herself in the vision disturbed by what she saw.

"That was not a human being." She thought to herself.

Lost in her thoughts she did not notice the sun being erased.

"What the…!" Buffy thought as she looked up.

The bulk of "Her Graceful Measure" was blotting out the sun.

"Showtime." She thought.


	20. Chapter 20

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

**This is the awe-inspiring universe of magic: There are no atoms, only waves and motions all around.** Here, you discard all belief in barriers to understanding. You put aside understanding itself. This universe cannot be seen, cannot be heard, cannot be detected in any way by fixed perceptions. It is the ultimate void where no preordained screens occur upon which forms may be projected.

You have only one awareness here — the screen of the magi: Imagination! Here, you learn what it is to be human. **You are a creator of order, of beautiful shapes and systems, an organizer of chaos.**

The Atreides Manifesto, Bene Gesserit Archives

She appeared on the dark side of Arrakis in a ship she stole from the Slayer fleet. The ship was sleek and long and invisible to radar. She looped once around the side of the planet that that was directly opposite the side held by "Her Graceful Measure". She scanned the EM field distribution of the huge battle station and found a blind spot near the poles where her ship would be undetected.

The Slayer known as Swanson jumped from the speeding ship minutes before it executed a perfect hyperspace fold back to the main Slayer fleet. She fell towards "Her Graceful Measure" at well over two hundred kilometers per hour.

She watched the deep stars around her. She drank in the vivid colors of the red giants, the gold of the yellow stars and the emerald greens of the distant nebulas. They shined bright and clear and diamond hard. She felt light as a feather as the rocky surface of the battle station loomed towards her at an impossible speed. She was a missile in the dark.

The inertial dampeners kicked in one kilometer above "Her Graceful Measure". Without this technology Swanson would have never survived her profound deceleration. After touchdown, she walked over to the maintenance airlock and entered the space station.

For three years she had trained with the Slayers in the outer rim. For three years she had blended in and pretended to be one of them. It was all a lie. Swanson spent all of her free time sparring with the Slayers on the practice field, taking every field mission she could get her hands on and waiting for her chance to return to Arrakis. While the Slayers were learning how to fight monsters she was learning by association how to fight them.

The Slayers were noble in their way. She did not hate them. Swanson simply saw them as a means to an end. Their power must be harnessed to free the Face Dancers from their Tleilaxu Masters. She spent years trying to keep up with them and understand their strengths and motivations but she finally had to admit that she didn't have a clue as to where that power originated.

The final slap in the face came when the Slayers began to master their ability to teleport. She was able to make excuses for a few months but she knew the clock was ticking. There was no way she could continue to masquerade as a slayer if she could not teleport.

Her break came when her connections on Tleilax informed her that Tleilaxu Master Brauch had placed a call for every available genetic analyst to come to Arrakis. Brauch would not explain why he needed so many analysts but he promised a project of profound significance. Swanson recalled her genetic research on the slayers using her own body and thought that Master Brauch was simply trying to recreate her research. Then she found out that Brauch's request was encrypted using the black code.

It was the same encryption used when Leto II assumed the imperial throne. It was a fish speaker encryption. The first chance she got Swanson stole a reconnaissance ship and headed back to Arrakis.

In the darkened maintenance room her features began to shift. A ridged brow appeared on her head. Her teeth grew sharp and pointed. Swanson hid her spacesuit and changed into a generic fish speaker uniform. She quickly left the maintenance area and made her way down the empty hallway.

"Now where can I find Master Brauch?" She thought to herself.

Buffy watched it block out the sun. "Her Graceful Measure" was a huge rock. It cast the world into darkness. Buffy was open mouth as she watched it turn day into night.

She didn't hear the woman walk up behind her.

"I need you daughter." The newcomer said.

Buffy turned to strike and hesitated. The new woman was pitch black from head to toe. She wore white tribal marking on her face. She looked as if she would be perfectly at home in any number of West African tribes.

"I need you daughter." She said again. The First Slayer looked over Buffy from head to toe. "You're shorter than I remember."

"Huh?" Buffy said bewildered.

"I need you to hear a message." She said. "I need you to hear a dying confession."

The First Slayer Touched Buffy on the forehead. Buffy closed her eyes and dreamed.

She found Brauch in his office. For hours she had discreetly roamed the ship looking for him avoiding large groups of vampires. From her experience she knew her disguise didn't cover her smell. Swanson closed the door behind her as she sneaked into his office.

Brauch absent mindedly looked up from his monitor. His computer screen was covered with equations, charts and a high definition animation of a swirling double helix.

"Set the samples over there." He said before returning his attention back to his monitor. It took him a moment to notice that the young woman in his office was not his assistant. His head flicked around. His orange speckled eyes dilated. Brauch inhaled deeply. Her smell was all wrong.

Swanson could feel the tension shift in the room. Brauch showed his demon face.

Three years of running field missions with the slayer fleet had taught her many things. Vampires are vicious creatures. The key was to get in and kill them fast. That was the problem. She wanted to talk to him first.

"Master Brauch, why are you here?" Swanson asked as she revealed the wooden stake she carried.

The vampire Brauch stood from his workstation and slowly approached her. He clearly had murder on his mind.

"A face dancer?" He said puzzled. The attitude of a Tleilaxu Master reappeared. Talking to her was an insult. It was beneath his dignity. It was like reporting to a dog.

"Impertinent slave." He said with disgust. "I won't bother drinking your blood. I'll just kill you."

"Why are you here with the Fish Speakers?" Swanson asked. She refused to be distracted. "What do you want with slayer DNA?" she asked.

Brauch paused and smiled.

"You know of the slayers?" He asked. He felt he could use the dumb animal before he killed it.

Swanson slowly positioned herself to take a look at Brauch's computer screen. She recognized the symbols on the screen. His work was elementary. There was nothing she could learn here.

"I've trained with them for years. " She said as they circled each other. "They are not just creatures of flesh. I've had their gene markers in me for years. I can mimic their speed and strength but something is missing. The soul of the slayer is not in the DNA."

"The Slayer does not walk in this world."

Swanson heard a voice in her mind. It was the First Slayer. "We are more than the flesh. " She said. "We are the fist of the outer world. We are the wraith of heaven."

Swanson didn't know the person behind that voice or how she was speaking to her but something inside of her recognized the First Slayer.

A vision ballooned in her mind. Three women stood in a desert two white one black. Swanson knew the dark woman was Sineya the first slayer. The other women were unrecognized.

"The Slayer does not walk in this world." She heard Sineya say.

"I walk. I talk. I shop, I sneeze. I'm gonna be a fireman when the floods roll back. There are trees in the desert since you moved out. And I don't sleep on a bed of bones. Now give me back my friends." The shorter woman said.

Swanson paused a moment to listen. That's when Brauch jumped her. In the blink of an eye he lunged at her and stabbed his teeth into her neck. He brought his arm up and wrapped her head tightly in his deadly embrace. Swanson grabbed the back of his head pulling his teeth from her neck. Blood splattered on the carpet. She took her steak and rammed in into his heart.

Master Brauch exploded in a storm of dust.

Swanson dropped to her knees and then fell to her back. She was dying. The first slayer appeared to her once more giving her instructions. The room was turning black. Her vision was becoming dark and blurry. She had suffered massive blood loss. Strangely enough, she was at peace. Everything was ok.

She noticed the blonde haired woman leaning over her. Swanson recognized her from the vision. She was the one who had talked to the first slayer thousands of years ago.

As Swanson lay dying she reached out to Buffy.

"When you see her tell her she was right. Tell the First Slayer She was right. The source of your power does not lie in the flesh. You are creatures of the spirit world. You have to believe that Buffy."

And with that she died and Buffy was released from the dream.

Buffy looked around. The top of the sandworm was empty save for the distant figure of a dark skinned woman walking away.

"Her Graceful Measure" was still blocking the sun.

Buffy felt cold inside.


	21. Chapter 21

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

**The life of a single human, as the life of a family or an entire people, persists as memory. My people must come to see this as part of their maturing process.** They are people as organism, and in this persistent memory they store more and more experiences in a subliminal reservoir. Humankind hopes to call upon this material if it is needed for a changing universe. But much that is stored can be lost in that chance play of accident which we call "fate." Much may not be integrated into evolutionary relationships, and thus many may not be evaluated and keyed into activity by those ongoing environmental changes which inflict themselves upon flesh. The species can forget! **This is the special value of the Kwisatz Haderach which the Bene Gesserits never suspected: the Kwisatz Haderach cannot forget.**

The Book of Leto After Harq al-Ada

Buffy felt them before she saw them. The shock of watching the slayer Swanson die was starting to fade. Buffy didn't understand the message given to her.

"Tell her she was right." Swanson had said.

"Tell who?" Buffy thought. "Who is this First Slayer?"

She watched the dark skinned woman who had instructed her to gather the vision disappear in the distance.

The slayers appeared out of thin air directly in front of her. They were dressed in black from head to toe. They were wearing stillsuits made out of soft armor. The material could protect them from the thrust of a knife or the rake of a claw and could resist laser light up to fifteen hundred degrees.

Their faces were fierce. Black tribal tattoos were laid over white kabuki makeup. Their eyes were hard, unflinching, blue within blue. And on the back of each of the fifty slayers was the scythe.

Buffy heard Motorria performing the spell. She recognized the words. From her point of view Willow had said the same words only a few hours ago.

Lucilla said " Spiritus… The Spirit…"

Lisa said "Animus… Heart…"

Surayya said "Sophus… Mind…

They looked at Buffy. She knew when she had to do.

"…Maus the hand." She said.

Motorria completed the spell as given to her by her pre-life memories.

"We enjoin that we may inhabit the vessel - the hand - daughter of Sineya, First of the Ones. We implore thee: Admit us, bring us to the vessel!"

Their eyes began to glow orange.

"Take us now!" Motorria screamed.

The near kilometer length of the sandworm was enveloped in light.

Her mind was tearing itself apart. She felt like a thousand worms were digging through her brain. Every emotion she had was raging in her at full force. She clamped her hands to her face and screamed until her throat was raw. She hated it here. She hated being on the mortal plane. She removed her hands from her eyes and stared out of the portal on the space station. Glory looked down at the brown planet beneath her from the observation port aboard "Her Graceful Measure."

"Well now." She said to herself. "This is new."

He awoke in darkness and smelled the blood nearby. The Master moved in the shadows of the huge ship wondering how he got free of the prison that had held him for hundreds of years. No matter. He was hungry and needed to feed. He kicked in the door to the holding cell that held the helpless humans inside. He killed them and drank. He felt his strength began to build. When he returned to full strength he would free himself of this strange place and return to Sunnydale in time for the Harvest.

"Bloody Hell!" Spike said as he materialized on the command desk. His black jacket flapped around him. He turned swiftly to spy out this strange place.

"I'll wager this is some trick of the Slayer." He said with a growl.

Gorman rose from her command chair in open face shock.

"It's the traitor!" she said as she pointed towards Spike. Three guards leapt towards Spike with full vampire speed. He took out the first guard with an elbow strike to the throat. Spike then slammed the palm of his hand into the guard's chin strong enough to decapitate him. In the mist of the exploding dust Spike broke the arm of the second guard and flipped him into the command console several meters away. As he turned to the third guard he felt a shaft of wood penetrate his chest. He looked up at Gorman who was gloating.

"Farewell traitor!" she said.

Spike smiled and as he pulled the stake out of his heart. He waved his fingers in the air for all to see.

"It's called the Gem of Amara. With this bit of shiny I am un-killable. I could walk out into the harsh light of day and be none worst for it." He said as he began to approach Gorman.

"Now," he said as he grabbed Gorman by the throat. "Who do I have to kill to get a drink around here?"

The magic exploded.

The joining spell did exactly what it was suppose to. It joined all the participants of the spell to the power of the slayer but never before had this spell encountered Bene Gesserit Slayers or Spice or the magics surrounding the demon essence of Spike which were used to make Leto's Slayers. The magic exploded and kept going through Space and Time and Memory. It reached across thousands of years of memories and joined with everything ever touched by a slayer. It reached through light years of space to the prison moon of Tailos Three. The Old Ones gathered around the glowing and decaying body of Alisha Itkin. They studied the magics surrounding her corpse. They understood what they were seeing. They knew they had a way out.

"Gurney Man!" Paul Muad'Dib said as he looked around the hanger deck of "Her Graceful Measure." Next to Paul a scarred and battle harden man stood. They both held a crysknife.

"This is it." Paul said as he embraced his old friend. "This is the war at the end of time. This is the Gotterdammerung – the twilight of the Gods."

"Freeze!" A male voice shouted across the hanger bay.

Paul and Gurney turned to face a squad of Sardaukar troopers.


	22. Chapter 22

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

This is the fallacy of power: ultimately it is effective only in an absolute, a limited universe. But the basic lesson of our relativistic universe is that things change. Any power must always meet a greater power. Paul Muad'Dib taught this lesson to the Sardaukar on the Plains of Arrakeen. His descendants have yet to learn the lesson for themselves.

The Preacher at Arrakeen

The slayers sliced through a band of twenty daemons as if they were tissue paper.

The landscape of "Her Graceful Measure", nearly twenty thousand cubic kilometers, had been changed into something out of a nightmare. The ecosystem of the battle station had included kilometers of woodland that was now infested by werewolves. The artificial lakes were now filled water dragons and packs of hungry vampires roamed free.

The slayers appeared in an open field in a halo of blue light. They were arranged in a diamond formation which permitted a quick deployment in any direction. Twenty vampires and a band of demons attacked them instantly.

There were monsters in space.

"What happened?" Surayya asked as she looked around."This place looks like a demon playground."

"Us." Motorria said. "The joining spell combined with our connected souls. We dragged these monsters here. They'll be here as long as the joining spell is active."

Surayya watched Motorria's orange glowing eyes and was disturbed. "What are we?" she asked herself. She knew she looked the same way. "What the hell are we, really?"

The slayers for now were monsters too.

Surayya accepted the ugly truth. "Let's get this done." She said.

In small commando groups the slayers teleported to their assigned place in the huge battle station. Buffy disappeared with a group that included Motorria.

Surayya was left all alone.

"Gorman, here I come." She thought as she teleported to the command center.


	23. Chapter 23

﻿All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

"In my time, nightmares walked among us. Walked and danced, skewering victims in plan sight, laying their fears and worst desires out for everyone to see. This to make us laugh."

Illyria  
Angel: Underneath  
S05E17

The slayers jumped the Sardaukar troopers as they chased Muad'Dib and Gurney across the flight deck. Muad'Dib had managed to defeat several of them but in the end there were too many. Muad'Dib was awed at their fighting style. It combined Fremen and Atreides swordsmanship with something vicious and brutal. Paul's pre-life memories recognized the style as something primeval. They were called slayers. Paul and Gurney turned to face them. A short girl covered in blood turned her eyes towards him.

"You are Paul Muad'Dib of Sietch Tabr? Motorria asked.

"Abomination!" Paul could hear the pre-life voice of a Bene Gesserit ancestor screaming in his mind. Paul observed her orange glowing eyes and thought his ancestor may not be far wrong.

Motorria could read Paul's body language and decided to have some fun with him. She assumed the personage of his daughter Ghanima.

"History is written on the sands of Arrakis. A chapter has ended, swept away by the whirlwind. One door has closed, but another has opened. And on the other side... our future..." she said. Her body's movement mimicked Ghanima exactly.

She saw the effect it had on Paul and regretted it immediately. Motorria grasped Paul's hand tenderly.

"Yes." She said in answer to Paul's unasked question. "They are all here but my mind is my own. I am not abomination." Motorria managed a weak smile that sent shivers down Paul's back.

Something huge, the size of a small house, stirred in the darkness. It crushed a few of the air to ground skimmers as it lumbered out of the darkness. Two of the slayers left to deal with it. Paul noticed the blonde haired woman that stood next to Motorria. She reminded him of Lady Jessica from the water fat days of Caladan. Yet there was something hard in the comers of her eyes. It was obvious that she was a warrior.

"Now, one last thing." Motorria said as she gripped both Buffy's and Paul's hand. They felt a wave of warmth pass over them. Motorria released them both.

"Something for the future." She said cryptically.

The two slayers returned covered in green goo.

"Time for phase two." Motorria said as everyone was teleported out.

Glory tore the steel door from its hinges to get to the cell full Humans. She felt as if she was going insane. The energies that kept her mind coherent in this dimension were dissipating. She needed some fresh brains to snack on. She ignored the flash of light behind her.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." A voice behind Glory said.

Glory turned to face five slayers holding the scythe before them. Glory recognized the force behind the glowing of their eyes.

"Slayers!" She said shocked and disgusted. If her fellow hell gods knew she was hanging out with slayers she would never hear the end of it.

"I bet your brain is all itchy." One of the Slayers said as she stepped forward.

Glory didn't wait to be attacked. She waved her hand and unleashed hell.

Something wet and black slithered in the shadows. Thousands of tiny teeth ripped at the skin of the slayers. Screaming echoed along the hallway growing louder and deeper and closer. A viscous darkness smothered them like a urine soaked blanket that had been used to wrap the decaying body of a dead dog.

Buffy kept herself from vomiting and focused all of her attention on Glory. Glory stared at her strangely.

"Have we met before?" Glory asked a moment before she understood. "You're not supposed to be here!" she realized. Glory was thinking of something extra nasty to do to Buffy when a spark of orange energy leapt from Buffy's finger tips and impaled itself in her brain.

Glory was frozen stiff. She was now a part of the joining spell. The source of the slayers held the hell god rigid.

With her back against the wall Motorria said "Now!"

Illyria, sovereign and warrior of the demon age, stepped out of the shadows. Her blood red leather one piece armor contrasted sharply with her blue hair. She was over six feet tall with a slim physique and bright red pupils. Illyria was an ancient god that had found a way to be resurrected in Los Angeles on ancient Earth.

"Hey, long time no see!" Glory said to the Old One.

Illyria stepped within striking distance of her and said "I have chosen a side."

And with that she tore Glory's head from her body.

"I have kept my part of the bargain." Illyria said to the assembled slayers as she held Glory's head by the hair. Glory's blood dripped on the floor in bright red puddles.

One of the slayers produced a black plastic bag to hold the head.

"I know." Motorria said grimly. "But, you have one last obligation to fulfill."

Buffy was standing there open mouth and shocked.

"Don't worry." Motorria said as she put her arm around Buffy. "She's on our side. We do have a plan you know."

The Slayers and the Old One disappeared together.


	24. Chapter 24

﻿All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

MASTER:  
Something is happening above. Something new a powerful psychic force. Do you feel it?

COLLIN:  
I feel change.

MASTER:  
Change. Yes. (looking up) For the worse.

Buffy.S01E10  
Nightmares

The second commando team appeared on the bridge in a flash of light. Motorria, Buffy, two other slayers, Paul Muad'Dib, Gurney Halleck and Illyria dispersed to various parts of the command center. Illyria stood by a group of plants listening for the song of the green. Buffy stood there shocked by the brutal act of decapitation she had just witnessed. The slayer with the black plastic bag containing Glory's head walked over to Surayya for further instructions.

"I am but a shell of my former…glory." Illyria said to no one in particular. "The god of the slayers has promised to restore me to full power." Illyria looked at the slayers around her. "This is the only reason I tolerate you creatures. This is the only reason I murder my own."

Surayya understood the message. However, her attention was being held by the story being told to her by Reverend Mother Basara.

"Did the Missionaria Protectiva encourage the bombing of the Church of Universal light?" Surayya asked. Basara could tell the young woman had been schooled in the use of the Voice. She was probability a Truthsayer as well. Surayya watched Basara's body language and knew the answer before she answered.

"The weapon was purchased through the guild of assassins by a slayer from sietch Kindle." Basara said in an attempt to lie.

"I didn't ask you that." Surayya said with a sharp edge to her voice. Basara saw how she had handled Gorman. Death was in the air.

Basara frantically thought of ways to rephrase her story knowing she was talking to a Truthsayer.

In the middle of the room Buffy stood with her mouth open frantically pointing at Spike who just growled at her.

"We know." Motorria said. "Spike's here at our invitation."

Spike held his hand up showing Buffy the Gem of Amara that he wore on his left hand and stuck his tongue out at her and then made a mean face. Buffy crossed her arms and stared at him. She remembered the vision of Spike she got from the spice trance on Arrakis. She saw Spike in a cave under Sunnydale. A river of light was poured out of him. She remembered her decision not to kill him. Of course, that didn't mean she still couldn't kick his ass for fun.

Motorria watched Buffy with amusement.

"Oh, you can kill him." Motorria said to her. "He is just a memory construct, a nexus pulled from our pre-life memories. We wouldn't dare threaten our own existence by pulling the real Spike out of the timeline."

Buffy looked at her. "Then why risk bringing me here?" she asked.  
Motorria looked at her with both fear and awe.

"It's complex." Motorria said. "You have direct access to memories that we don't. The magics surrounding the slayer line were changed, were damaged by you. Besides, she misses you. You were her first. You were the first slayer Sineya had ever met!"

This was getting crazy. Buffy had never met the First Slayer and how could she have damaged the slayer line. She remembered Kendra and Faith.

"It's because I died, isn't it?" Buffy asked.

"No." Motorria said. "It's because you live. You changed everything."

Buffy and Motorria looked at each other for a long moment. Motorria absent minded rubbed her belly.

"Your blood line will live on." She said as she turned and walked away to stand next to Surayya who turned briefly from her interrogation of Reverend Mother Basara to glance at Buffy.

"What is it they are not telling me?" Buffy asked herself.

Basara finally confessed.

"We wanted to stress Fish Speaker command with a controlled civil war. The chapterhouse wanted to infiltrate the command and control centers of a few dozen planetary systems through the Fish Speakers. It was suppose to be a small civil war." She whined.

Surayya felt disgusted. Over a hundred thousand people and quite a few slayers had died when the "Leit-Kynes" had been destroyed not to mention the nearly one million souls that had been lost after a bio-weapon had devastated the Arrakis capital city. Surayya unsheathed the scythe she carried on her back and held the sharp edge of the blood red blade against the carotid artery that ran up the side of Basara's neck.

"Understand this." Surayya said with steel in her voice. "You work for us now. You will carry our demands to the Bene Gesserit. The sisterhood will stay out of our way. The Missionaria Protectiva will leave Arrakis.

Basara looked into Surayya's eyes and knew fear.

"Yes." She said.

Another commando group appeared on the bridge. In the mist of them was the Master. His ancient vampire face would have terrified anyone else. Between the Old One and the joined slayers he was the weakest one in the room.

The Master spotted Spike.

"The House of Aluris is well represented here." He said with a smile. The side of his head exploded in pain as Buffy punched him with her full slayer strength.

"That's for killing me!" She said.

"Enough!" Surayya commanded. She turned her attention to the inky blackness in the huge view port before her that showed a clear view of the billions of stars and the Fish Speaker fleet beyond.

"We have the weapon and a guidance system. It's almost time." She said.

Out beyond the Fish Speaker fleet space began to ripple as terrible magics came into play. Red and gold sparks appeared out of nowhere as quanta of energy escaped the singularity that was forming. The darkness inflated outward in a volume that began to silently eat the Fish speaker Fleet.

Surayya shed a tear for them.

'I'm sorry, I'm sorry" she said to the thousands of Fish Speakers in the fleet who were being consumed by the expanding wall of darkness.

"We simply didn't have time to warn you."

The black bubble burst in a soundless explosion of light that ripped the Fish Speaker fleet in half. The energy of seventy thousand suns poured through the singularity.

The Master felt the power of it, of them. He could always detect the presence of supernatural forces. The power of what he felt now was power at the god level. Illyria felt it too. Enemy's she had sworn to destroy millions of years ago were now on the battle station.

The slayers assembled everyone in a circle as they prepared to join battle against their true target.

"The Old Ones have arrived from Tailos Three." Surayya said as she smiled freeing her teeth for battle.

"Ladies, let's finish this!" she said as the brilliance enveloped them.

Tech Notes: To everyone that has sent me emails. If the singularity is at the center then you have a black hole with the event horizon on the outside. If the singularity is in the form of a ring then the Event horizon is on the inside and you have an object with an infinite gravitational pull outward from the center. and that's how a singularity radiates the energy of seventy thousand suns, you know other than Hawking radiation.


	25. Chapter 25

﻿All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

When I set out to lead humanity along my Golden Path I promised a lesson their bones would remember. I know a profound pattern humans deny with words even while their actions affirm it. They say they seek security and quiet, conditions they call peace. Even as they speak, they create seeds of turmoil and violence.

• -Leto II, The God Emperor

It was in a white coffin nearly a kilometer long. It laid across the landscape like an obscene relic from a festival for the dead. Even after millions of years, it still glowed; it still radiated enough power to intimidate the Master. It was a coffin of an Old One. It held the energy of one of the original demon lords of the Earth

"You want to release that?" He asked. Surayya saw fear on its face.

"That's the target." She said as the troupe of slayers made their way to the top of a small hill.

"Her Graceful Measure" held a complete ecosystem. If Surayya forgot that she was on a battle station it would easy to believe that she was standing on a hilltop on an Earthlike planet.

Since the battle station used artificial light, both Spike and the Master could stand with them in the full light of day.  
Illyria watched it silently. Her eyes held no expression. Her hands clinched and unclenched making bony pink fists. Everyone could tell she struggled with titanic emotions.

"We warred for so long." She said. Her respect mixed with her grief. "Millions of years passed as we battled. This was the only one I ever feared." Illyria turned her blue speckled eyes towards Surayya.

"It would kill us all." She said.  
"That's the plan." Surayya retorted. "Except for the part where the good guys die."

There were only eight of them on the hill. Actually, eight point one. They still had Glory's head in a bag. Surayya had sent the rest of the slayers to free the Human captives and teleport them safety to Arrakis. She had even sent Reverend Mother Basara away.

All that was left was her, Buffy, Motorria, Lucillia, Illyria, Muad'Dib, Spike and the Master.  
And Glory's head in a bag

"Incoming!" Motorria said as she pointed towards the sky.

Overhead, a group of Old Ones were approaching. They were every aberration of geometrical shape imaginable. At the head of the pack was a thing that looked like two pyramids merged together with wet black tentacles writhing out of it. The thing behind it resembled a Man Of War six city blocks wide glowing with red and silver light. And behind that, was something the Human mind could only perceive as a tornado of swirling darkness dabbed with a billion blinking eyes.

The sense of menace radiating from the Old Ones choked Surayya and her band like smoke. They could feel the ancients' desire to consume all life everywhere and ignite the Universe into an eternal hell dimension. The space around them rippled. The magics they employed warped the space around them. Their mere presence perverted the place they occupied.

Surayya could feel that power.

These were the Gods of Old. Every holy thought, every fear of the dark originated from them. The Slayer in her awoke realizing the danger and desperately wanted to kill something. Surayya balanced it with her Bene Gesserit training. She found herself holding her scythe up to their rapidly approaching shapes and growling deep in her throat. She knew that course of action was futile.

One woman against the gods would end badly for her. She turned to Muad'Dib.

"Can you see a future where we kill them all?" She asked.

Muad'Dib knew what she was asking.

"I am scanning all possible futures." He said. His blue with blue eyes held a shadow of terror.

"I see.." He stopped as the scope of the vision awed him. Muad'Dib clasped Surayya shoulder firmly as a brief smile flashed on his face like lightening. " I know how we win." He said.

Something rustled in the forest below.

"Not the werewolves again." Surayya thought. She was about to send a Lucillia to deal with it when something the size of a T. Rex came directly at them.

She motioned to Buffy.

"We'll take this. Lucillia, Motorria get ready!" Surayya yelled.

Buffy unsheathed her scythe as she joined Surayya in battle. Under the influence of the joining spell neither woman felt any fear. The voul'sak demon roared as it opened its huge mouth showing teeth larger than a human head. .

It really did look like a T. Rex.

Surayya leapt to meet it. She drove the blood red blade of the scythe across its throat drawing blood. Buffy was close behind. The demon opened its mouth to bite Surayya in half. Buffy jammed her scythe into its mouth lengthwise. The stench of its breath, like rotted meat, overwhelmed her. That's when it whipped its tail around fast enough to crack steel. Surayya pivoted to one side as its tail missed her by a fraction of an inch. She followed the curve of her turn and finished it by driving the pointed end of the scythe into the eye socket of the beast directly into its brain.

It was dead before it hit the ground. That's when the two other monsters appeared.

"They are mine." Illyria said as she ran towards them. Illyria didn't need a weapon. She would use her bare hands. She grabbed the first voul'sak demon by the throat and crushed its windpipe. With her other hand she punched through the creatures' body and ripped out a two meter section of ribcage. The bloody bone glistened with chunks of meat and blood. She slammed the improved weapon into the other demons head.

In short order she had beaten it to death.

Surayya looked back upon the hill.

"Now!, Motorria, Now!" She screamed.

"Tell me vampire." Motorria said with her lips pressed to the Masters ear. "Can you feel it? Is it awake?"

"Yes." The Master said nervously. He could feel the presence of supernatural forces at a distance. "It is awake and it knows we are here."

"Good." Motorria said. "Now we don't need you anymore." Motorria rammed the tip of her scythe through the heart of the Master. He evaporated in a cloud of dust. She turned to Spike. Lucillia had already given him the bag containing glory's head.

"Go now!" she commanded. "Place the head of the demon at the base of the coffin. "  
Motorria looked Spike square in the eye as her pupils turned as black as night.

"If you hesitate boy, I will set you on fire." She said in the darkest tone Spike had ever heard. He tucked the bag with Glory's head in it and ran full speed towards the huge white coffin.

Motorria watched him go. Things came out of the bush and attacked him. She could see him fighting off half a dozen demons. Near the base of the coffin he lost an arm. The gem of Amara kept him alive.

"You should have sent me." Illyria said as she returned to the hill. Surayya and Buffy was close behind.

"No way." Motorria answered. "We need you alive."

Buffy gasped. Motorria looked evil. Her eyes were totally black. Buffy hoped she would never see anything like that again.

A shadow covered them. The slayers looked up. The Old Ones had arrived. The tornado of darkness with a billion eyes now had teeth.

Muad'Dib returned from his visions of the future. He had selected a path.

"Complete the spell." He said. "Spike will get no closer."

Motorria didn't even turn to verify. She knew that somewhere near his target Spike had met his second death.

"The spell is broken, take the sacrifice. The spell is broken. Awaken!" Motorria said. Her eyes never deviated from the death that was quickly approaching her.

In a black plastic bag near the base of the coffin covered in dust the head of Glory glowed. The bag split in half as a golden white light began to illuminate the landscape. It flared to a brilliance that caught the attention of the Old Ones. The energy exchange was enough. The magics that kept the creature trapped in the white coffin were weakened enough for it to break free.

The Destroyer had awakened.

"Everybody Out!" Surayya yelled. "It's about to get damn ugly in here!" They tried to teleport and nothing happened. They tried again and failed. The slayers looked at each other. That was when they noticed they couldn't move. Lucillia felt it first.

"It won't let us go!" she said. There was fear in her voice.

A hand, hundreds of meters wide, grasped the sides of the coffin as the destroyer stirred to life.

Above, the Old Ones screamed in sheer rage. The abomination they had defeated millions of years ago was awake. All of them, even the lowly demons that stirred in the landscape below turned to join their masters to attack the Destroyer.

Illyria felt it too. She really wanted to kill it. It was not about settling old scores. The thing they had awakened was a singular threat to demon kind. It could kill them all. But that age had passed, this was a new age. Illyria made her decision. She would resist the urge to join the Old Ones in their attack on the Destroyer.

Fire leapt from the coffin as the Destroyer stood. Its form was immense. It was Humanoid but translucent. Rivers of blue and gold ran within it. Fire leapt from his hands burning the Old Ones in mid air. With his other hand, the Destroyer pulled the scattered pieces of their ashes onto his palm. He rubbed his hands together grinding their ashes to dust.

The Destroyer pulsed and across the landscape of "Her Graceful Measure" the lower demons were instantly destroyed. He was at his full height now. He turned his head towards Illyria and began to stretch out his hand.

"The demon age is over." Illyria said not sure if she was facing death. "Your daughters rule now. The bride is waiting. Remember how it started? Remember the deal that was made?"

Thousands of years ago, on Earth, a group of powerful magi had been given the essence of a demon to pour into a little girl to create the first slayer, to create Sineya who was now the last sandworm on Arrakis. She was his bride. She was the first of the Chosen.

The Destroyer had given the Dark Men a portion of his essence only if they would use it to protect the World. He saw that the Slayer line had persisted and he was pleased.

"Is she ready to receive all of my essence?" The Destroyer asked.

They could all hear his voice in their heads. Surayya answered.

"Yes." she said. "Sineya waits for you. It has been a long time." She turned to Illyria. "And you as well. End the Demon Age and you will be restored." Surayya pleaded.

"Who will morn over us?" Illyria asked. "Who will build our temples? Who will know we were even here? She asked with real sadness in her voice.

"We will." said Surayya. "The slayers will be an everlasting monument."


	26. Chapter 26

﻿"My uncle Malky use to say that love was a bad bargain because you get no guarantees."  
"Your uncle Malky was a smart wise man."  
"He was stupid! Love needs no guarantees."

Hwi Noree and Duncan Idaho  
"The God Emperor of Dune"

Epilogue:

One Week later.

Surayya was back aboard the "Memories of Dawn".

Her flagship as well as the rest of the slayer fleet had returned to Arrakis. They had come looking for Swanson but instead had found the remains of thousands of Fish Speaker ships and three slayers aboard "Her Graceful Measure".

Fleet commander Guerrero welcomed them aboard with open arms. Hundreds of old friends who thought Surayya and company were dead spent days celebrating their return. Guerrero was shocked when Surayya resigned her commission.

Motorria followed then Lisa.

"We've changed." Surayya told them. "We're no longer Leto's Slayers. We belong only to ourselves now."

The Slayers understood. There was something about Arrakis that changed people.

"There is a Reverend Mother Basara you should contact." Surayya told Guerrero during her debriefing.  
"We've come to an understanding. The Bene Gesserit will bother us no more."

Surayya looked past her former executive officer and out of the viewport to the brown planet below. It had been a week since Illyria and The Destroyer had joined with the God-Worm. They were the three-in-one now, a holy trinity that lived beneath the sands of Dune.

Surayya felt the first faint stirrings of religious faith. She remembered the Destroyer and understood where such impulses came from.

"I have met my God." She thought to herself. That thought left her deeply disturbed. She remembered Muad'Dib's last words to her.

"Everything in the Universe is Holy because creation itself is a divine act. But the divine cannot tell us who we are. We have to discover that for ourselves. Accepting our true nature is the last act of creation."

Paul said this to her while they stood on a hill inside "Her Graceful Measure". Surayya hugged him tightly as he faded into nothing. The Slayers had released him back into time.

"Funny, I always thought I was shorter." The memory of Paul within said.

That evening Surayya visited Motorria in her quarters. Motorria wore a simple one piece black aba robe. Her pregnancy was showing. Motorria rubbed her belly as she sang to the baby.

"How is he?" Surayya asked

Motorria smiled. "He is beautiful." She said. "He is in all of my dreams."

The God-Worm had ordered Motorria to extract DNA from both Buffy and Muad'Dib while they were aboard "Her Graceful Measure". That was the real reason The First Slayer had pulled both Buffy and Muad'Dib out of time. She needed the flesh.

Motorria extracted the DNA when she held both of their hands and sent the warm pulse of magic through them. Neither Motorria nor Surayya understood why the God-Worm had ordered the pregnancy. They only understood one thing. Leto's breeding program was back.

Lisa joined the other two slayers in Motorria's quarters and together they sat and planned the future.

END

NOTES:

Hi Everyone!

It's been a long strange trip.

The Slayers of Dune series is now finished.

The story basically wrote itself. I just happen to be the humble conduit for it's entrance into this world.

So now maybe Surayya will stop poking me with her scythe and let me get some sleep.

I'll be spending the next few weeks cleaning up grammatical errors and such and tweaking the story but basically this is it.

I want to thank everyone who stood by me since the beginning so many thousands of words ago.

Norman  
Peace Out


End file.
